Good Bye Reyhaneh

Album: not on an album (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • Yes, goodbye is one word, but as the composer is Egyptian, he can be forgiven for not knowing that. This short piece of classical music has a vocal section but no words as such.

    Who was Reyhaneh? Reyhaneh Jabbari was 26 years old when she was hanged at Gohardasht Prison, Tehran on October 25, 2014. Her execution caused an international outcry; in 2007 when she was just 19 years old she murdered Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, claiming he had tried to rape her. In Iran, murder is capital, but so is rape. The usual suspects including Amnesty International proclaimed her innocence, but this was no case of a woman defending her honor; the victim was stabbed in the back. Shortly after her death, part of an interview with Justice Hassan Tardast was republished in English by the Urdu language weekly Nasheman in which the judge refuted emphatically the claims that had been spread by the anti-death penalty crowd. He said Miss Jabbari's relationship with the much older man had been a commercial one, and that a court-appointed female psychologist believed she exhibited an extreme case of narcissism. The fact that it took seven years to execute her indicates that she was not entirely denied due process. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

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