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The country’s Supreme Court made the decision after the defendant, who has not been named, carried out an acid attack which left her victim without sight. The woman threw acid in the face of her victim, Sima, in Dehdasht a city in the south-west of the Middle East country, two years ago, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim. Head of the country’s judiciary Majid Karami said: “The sentence to blindness in one eye, payment of blood money [compensation], and seven years [of] imprisonment have been confirmed by the highest court.”

Getty A demonstration in Iran over acid attacks

Human rights organisation Amnesty International have called for the Iranian government to call off the punishment. Supporters of the unnamed woman have called on the victim’s family to decline the punishment with one activist Mohammad Surizad asking for them to “show clemency” and pardon the convicted woman. Under Iranian Sharia Law retribution, or an eye-for-an-eye, punishments called qesas where cases involve bodily harm are permitted by the sentence can be refused by the victim or their family.

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Getty Ameneh Bahrami after being blinded in an acid attack

Authorities in the country have increasingly used qesas in recent years due to the rise in acid attacks although the implementation of the punishment is still relatively rare. One such acid attack occurred six years ago when Ameneh Bahrami was blinded in both eyes by a university classmate after she repeatedly refused his proposal of marriage. In that case the victim forgave her attacker, sparing him from being blinded.

Getty Women in Iran (stock image)