Iran court condemns mum who butchered baby
Wanted to save child from life on the streets
Iran's Supreme Judiciary Council condemned a 28-year-old homeless woman to death for killing and dismembering her five-day-old baby.
The woman, Suhayla, admitted to murdering her infant son, saying she wanted to save him from facing the same fate as her, Iranian daily Etemmad Melli reported.
Suhayla has lived on the streets since the age of 15, when she ran away from home. She worked as a prostitute for years in Tehran and was arrested and committed to a social rehabilitation center where she had her baby.
When the judge asked why she dismembered the child, she replied: "I am training myself to kill properly so I can take revenge on the one who made me what I am," Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA News) reported.
The woman was sentenced to death after medical tests showed she had no psychological disorders.
According to sociology professor, Amanullah Quraee, there are 300,000 homeless women in Tehran. A report published on International Women's Day said more than 8 million Iranian women live under the poverty line and that 86% of homeless women were victims of sexual exploitation.
The report added that prostitution in Iran had reached its highest rates ever and that there were around 8,000 pick-up places in Tehran.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).