An Iranian woman granted vengeance on the man who disfigured and blinded her has decided to turn the other cheek.
Ameneh Bahrami, who lost her sight after Majid Movahedi doused her with acid when she spurned his marriage proposal in 2004, chose to forgive him instead of allowing a doctor to place several drops of the corrosive chemical into one of his eyes.
The dramatic scene, aired on Iran‘s state television over the weekend, showed the 34-year-old woman standing over the weeping attacker.
“What do you want to do now?” the doctor asked, according to The Associated Press.
“I forgave him. I forgave him,” she replied, saying she wished to spare him.
Bahrami suffered wounds to her eyes, face, scalp and body in the horrific attack nearly seven years ago. Still visibly scarred, her decision to spare the man who had disfigured her was a surprise.
“It is best to pardon when you are in a position of power,” Bahrami said.
Movahedi thanked the woman, calling her “very generous.”
“I couldn’t imagine being blinded by acid,” Movahedi said tearfully.
Bahrami shows photograph of what she looked like before being disfigured. (Lluis Gene/Getty)
Victims in Iran have the right to ask for strict enforcement of Islamic law, which allows for qisas, or eye-for-an-eye retribution.
In the trial of Bahrami’s attacker, the court ruling allowed the woman to have a doctor pour a few drops of acid in one of Movahedi’s eyes as retribution.
In 2009, Bahrami said she was pleased with the sentence.
“I am not doing this out of revenge, but rather so that the suffering I went through is not repeated,” she said.
It is unclear what caused her to have a change of heart.
Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said Movahedi would remain in jail until a court decides on an alternative punishment, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.
Movahedi must still pay financial compensation to Bahrami, which may amount to at least $200,000.
Amnesty International criticized Iran for the sentence, even though it wasn’t carried out.
“Majid Movahedi committed a horrendous act which has ruined Ameneh Bahrami’s life,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s deputy director of Middle East and North Africa.
“But deliberate blinding inflicted by a medical expert is a cruel punishment which amounts to torture,” he said.
With News Wire Services
msheridan@nydailynews.com; or follow him at Twitter.com/NYDNSheridan
