Matt 24 watch, 85: understanding the mindset of the Iranian regime

CAUTION: Very disturbing material. (I would not normally circulate so saddening a bit of information, but we need to understand the mindset that we are now dealing with in Iran. given the known pattern of dubious executions of especially young girls [long term readers may recall an invitation to sign up to an international petition for blocking the execution of a young girl who defended herself and a young cousin from rape with a pocket knife and who in so doing happened to kill one of the assailants], the below is all too sadly credible. )

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Mark Steyn gives us a link to a Jerusalem Post article that in turn gives a chilling insight into the mindset of the "justice" that the Iranian regime sees as being established globally by the Mahdi, through a reported interview with a member of the Basiji militia that was involved with the recent suppression of protests on the recently stolen election:

The Basiji member, who is married with children, spoke soon after his release by the Iranian authorities from detention. He had been held for the "crime" of having set free two Iranian teenagers - a 13-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl - who had been arrested during the disturbances that have followed the disputed June presidential elections.

"There have been many other police and members of the security forces arrested because they have shown leniency toward the protesters out on the streets, or released them from custody without consulting our superiors," he said . . . .

Returning to . . . his decision to set free the two teenage detainees, he said he "honestly" did not know why he had released them, a decision that led to his own arrest, "but I think it was because they were so young. They looked like children and I knew what would happen to them if they weren't released."

He said that while a man is deemed "responsible for his own actions at 13, for a woman it is 9," and that it was freeing the 15-year-old girl that "really got me in trouble.

"I was not mistreated or really interrogated while being detained," he said. "I was put in a tiny room and left alone. It was hard being isolated, so I spent most of my time praying and thinking about my wife and kids."

Nine is of course the age of Aisha, Mohammed's child-bride, when he took her from her dolls and consummated his arranged marriage with her, originally made when she was six.

However, sad as the above is, that is not what is truly chilling.

That comes out in an answer to a follow-up question:

Asked about his own role in the brutal crackdowns on the protesters, whether he had been beaten demonstrators and whether he regretted his actions, he answered evasively.

"I did not attack any of the rioters - and even if I had, it is my duty to follow orders," he began. "I don't have any regrets," he went on, "except for when I worked as a prison guard during my adolescence."

Explaining how he had come to join the volunteer Basiji forces, he said his mother had taken him to them.

When he was 16, "my mother took me to a Basiji station and begged them to take me under their wing because I had no one and nothing foreseeable in my future. My father was martyred during the war in Iraq and she did not want me to get hooked on drugs and become a street thug. I had no choice," he said.

He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so "impressed my superiors" that, at 18, "I was given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.

Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"

"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.

"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."

Nor is this merely an unsupported report via anonymous phone interview. Here is a corroborating report from Capitalpunishmentuk.org, which explains the chilling theological reason for the execution eve rapes:

There are no accurate records of just how many men, women and girls were executed in the first years of the Revolution. There is a credible list of 14,028 names available and some sources claim figures of several tens of thousands, although these are not substantiated with names. According to a report published by the Organisation of Women Against Execution in Iran, at least 2,000 women were executed between June 1981 and 1990. They have been able to prepare a list containing 1,428 names. 187 of these women were under the age of 18, with 9 girls under the age of 13 and 14 between the ages of 45 to 70. The youngest girl executed was just 10 years old. Thirty two of these women were reported to have been pregnant at the time of their execution. Many of those executed were high school and college students . . . .

Under Revolutionary law, young girls who were sentenced to death could not be executed if they were still virgins. Thus, they were "married off" to Revolutionary Guards and prison officials in temporary marriages and then raped before their execution, to prevent them going to heaven. The Mullahs believed that these women were ungodly and did not deserve paradise in the next life and that if they were deprived of their virginity, it would ensure that they went to hell. Therefore, on the night prior to execution, the condemned girl was injected with a tranquilliser and then raped by her guard(s). After the execution, the religious judge at the prison would write out a marriage certificate and send it to the victim's family along with a box of sweets.

Similarly, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( Correspondence address: B.P. 18, 95430 Auvers-sur-Oise, France) reports in Women, Islam & Equality . . . Chapter Two - Prime Victim:

According to a "religious" decree, virgin women prisoners must as a rule be raped before their execution, "lest they go to Paradise." Therefore, the night before execution, a Guard rapes the condemned woman. After her execution, the religious judge at the prison writes out a marriage certificate and sends it to the victim's family, along with a box of sweets. In a written confession in January 1990, Sarmast Akhlaq Tabandeh, a senior Guards Corps interrogator, recounted one such case in Shiraz prison: "Flora Owrangi, an acquaintance of one of my friends was one such victim. The night before her execution, the resident mullah in the prison conducted a lottery among the members of the firing squads and prison officials to determine who would rape her. She was then forcibly injected with anesthesia ampoules, after which she was raped. The next day, after she was executed, the mullah in charge wrote a marriage certificate and the Guard who raped her took that along with a box of sweets to her parents."

In short, we must stretch our minds to understand a legal mentality that rationalises and "solves" a "legal" and "theological" problem under sacralised law -- making "sure" the executed go to hell (just imagine the further torment to the victims' families on receiving that sickening certificate and box of sweets) -- through in effect legalising rape under the "temporary marriage" provision of Islamic law.

Even, "rewarding" zealous job performance by the privilege of being the designated rapist who ensures that he to-be executed young girl goes to hell.

And, no wonder the victims of such psycho-spiritual and physical torture on the night before they are to be executed are plainly often reduced to near-catatonia or to clawing up themselves: they are not only being viciously violated under false colour of law, but believe they are being doomed to hell and can do nothing about it, even if they try to fight.

Perhaps even worse is this case, the execution of a "mentally incompetent girl, 16-year-old Ateqeh Rajabi on August 16, 2004, the vague charge "acts incompatible with chastity":

. . . informed sources revealed that Ms. Ateqeh was sentenced to death by the judge, a cleric, because during the "trial", she expressed outrage at the misogyny and injustice in the Islamic Republic and its Islam-based judicial system.

“The lower court judge was so incensed by her protestations that he personally put the noose around her neck after his decision had been upheld by the Supreme Court”, the sources reported.

Such a mentality will -- as events have shown us -- easily justify stealing an election and suppressing protest, punishing those who cannot find it in them to destroy the lives of children. The cold blooded sniping of a young girl simply standing on the streetside when a protest was underway suddenly makes a lot of sense.

And worse, much worse.

Sad.

Ever so sad.

In short, we are in a far more dangerous world situation than we are wont to think as the Iranian regime clearly nears end-game in its campaign to acquire nuclear weapons.

It is time to face some very unwelcome facts, think and pray about even more unwelcome implications, and act decisively and determinedly in the face of growing danger.

Before it is too late. END