Iranian Woman Blinded, Disfigured by Acid Spares Attacker the Same Fate

TEHRAN, Iran (The Blaze/AP) -- An Iranian woman who was blinded by a suitor who threw acid on her face has pardoned her attacker at the last minute, sparing him from being blinded by acid as retribution.

Iranian state television broadcast footage Sunday of Ameneh Bahrami in the operating room with her attacker, Majid Mohavedi, who was on his knees waiting for her to drop acid in his eyes as punishment.

Bahrami said she has forgiven Mohavedi and pardoned him. State TV showed Mohavedi weeping and saying Bahrami was "very generous."

Mohavedi poured acid on Bahrami's face in 2004 for rejecting his marriage proposal, disfiguring her face and leaving her blind in both eyes.

CNN reported:

"I was just yelling, 'I'm burning! I'm burning! For God's sake, somebody help me,' " she said.

The acid seeped into her eyes, and streamed down her face into her mouth. When she covered her face with her hands, streaks of acid ran down her fingers and onto her forearms.

Bahrami had demanded qisas, or "eye for an eye"-style justice, allowed under Shariah law. A 2008 Iranian court order agreed with her, ruling she would be allowed to pour the corrosive chemical in Mohavedi's eyes as retribution.

She was quoted on Iranian television saying, "I never wanted to have revenge on him. I just wanted the sentence to be issued for retribution. But I would not have carried it out. I had no intention of taking his eyes from him."

Bahrami told the Iranian Students' News Agency that she also chose to forgive Mohavedi for her country, "since all other countries were looking to see what we would do."

"God talks about qisas in the Koran but he also recommends pardon since pardon is greater than qisas and I wanted to do a greater job," she said.

According to the BBC, Amnesty International had lobbied against the sentence, calling it "cruel and unusual punishment amounting to torture."

Bahrami's mother said she was proud of her daughter: "Ameneh had the strength to forgive Majid. This forgiveness will calm Ameneh and our family."