Six days after the execution of a woman who killed her attempted rapist, Iran has lashed out at critics of its appalling human rights record at a U.N. hearing on Friday, blaming the West for Saturday's execution.
The Islamic Republic's rebuttal of a derogatory report from the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran came during a three-hour review in Geneva of the U.N. Human Rights Council of Tehran's record.
Chief of human rights in Iran's government Mohammad Javad Larijani told the panel that this idea of, 'the West and the rest, only the West has good things,' is wrong, asking them to please accept the idea that others have a good way of life and western lifestyle isn't only way of doing things, Fox News reported.
Larijani, secretary general of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, a part of its judiciary, lashed out at what he called attempts to impose Western lifestyle under the banner of human rights, including gay rights.
Western diplomats were appalled at Iran's persecution of Christians and disregard for due process, with Iranian dissident Sepideh Pooraghaiee feeling that they were competing with themselves as to who would tell the biggest lie and U.S. ambassador Keith Harper saying that there are continued reports of government harassment towards members of religious minorities.
Britain's deputy ambassador Mark Matthews voiced concern at a sharp increase in executions in Iran over the past year.
The panel met less than a week after Iran hanged Reyhaneh Jabbari, a 26-year-old woman who spent eight years in prison after allegedly killing a man who tried to rape her. The prosecution of Jabbari drew international condemnation, but at Friday's panel, Larijani blamed the West for her execution.
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Larijani said that Jabbari's life could have been spared under Iranian law if the dead man's family forgave her, but explained that with international outrage arrayed against Iran, amplifying the charge he had tried to rape Jabbari, the family could not forgive her.
He said that they were not successful to solicit forgiveness from the hearts of victims, adding that unfortunately they were not able, perhaps one reason for that was the huge propaganda that was created against this case.
Shadi Sadr, an Iranian lawyer who defended Jabbari at her first two trials, said at a briefing later that she had reported having been tortured. The man she killed had worked for intelligence forces, according to Sadr, who fled Iran in 2009.