داستان ریحانه جباری، زندانی محکوم به اعدام

My name is Reyhaneh Jabari, I am twenty six (26), Iranian and I have been living in prison where I have been confined for years; having nightmares of being executed at any point in time.
Days pass by and my fear grows on daily basis as I stand being strangled with a rope around my neck. If only I didn’t defend myself, I would have been a victim of rape.
I wish that damned day did not exist in my life; the day that destroyed my life and me.
I was sitting in a coffee shop, talking and laughing with my friend. Some people where sitting around the place I was sitting and must have overhead me talking about myself being an interior designer.
When I wanted to leave the coffee shop, two persons came towards me and asked if I could redecorate their offices. We agreed and exchanged telephone numbers. I was walking along the way when Morteza on his car stopped in front of me and insisted to give me a ride.
His friend was sitting in the car, too. I got in the car; I wish I never did.
Morterza was a middle-aged man. I was not suspicious of him and anything whatsoever, hence, I got on the car.
A Few days after, Morteza’s friend called me to visit his office to change the decoration regarding the contract already agreed upon before. We set an appointment and I appeared on the day.
They picked me up and drove me somewhere I didn’t know.
I got scared.
Mr. Shikhi had told me before that they were security officers, but Morteza was a surgeon, too. Morteza stopped in front of a pharmacy. He bought some stuffs there and came back with a little plastic bag in his hand. I did not know what he bought.

We arrived in an apartment which was on the fourth floor of a building. Inside the building was very dirty as if nobody had lived there for years.
Mr. Sheikhi did not come inside.
I was terrified to close the door behind me, but Morteza asked me to close the door. He asked me to take off my scarf. I didn’t do it. He approached me and tried to touch me, but I didn’t let him. He put his arms around my waist, I ran away. He got angry and said that I cannot disobey his desire.
I had a knife with me. In a second when he turned his head back to me I stabbed him in the back. He was still coming to me more angrily. He grappled me, but I could free myself from his hands.
While I was running through the door, Mr. Sheikhi came in. He got into a fight with Morteza. I did not know what was going on between them. He went to the kitchen table and took some documents from there. I ran away trying to get lost in the city. I went home very late.
At 2.00 O’clock in the morning, the police came and arrested me and since then I am in prison.

I got involved in a terrible incident. I later noticed from evidence that the plastic bag he had at the pharmacy contained condom and anesthetic and drawing inference from the items – juice containing anesthetic and the condoms, all show they wanted to rape me.
I just defended myself.
In all the court sessions, I had claimed that I am innocent and I continue to maintain that position. I did not kill Morteza even though I stabbed him to free myself. I do not know the extent of attack by the other man and what informed his intention; maybe to suppress evidence.
The court accepts neither my claim nor my lawyer’s defense. I have already declared in my last claim that I am an ordinary girl who did not allow violation of her dignity. I am a designer, I work as a designer and in line with my work, I entered into contract with them and they took me to the place where I believed reasonably that I was going to do my professional job; I never had any foreseeable hindsight of their intention as that had never happened to me before. The time for the court’s judgment came and the court’s verdict did not exculpate me and subsequently sentenced to death. Since my conviction five years ago, I am still in the death row.

The family of the deceased, the head of the judiciary and the supreme leader can only save me from death.
I do not deserve to die.
Death is not for me.
Please save me.