On August 15th, 2004 a 16-year-old girl was hanged in a public square in Neka, Iran. Her death sentence was for "acts incompatible with chastity". Her name was Atefah Rafavi Sahaaleh. The only evidence against Atefah was her own forced confession. Atefah railed against her judge in court for its unfairness, but this was her undoing. Judge Haji Rezai, who was also the local mullah, prosecutor and head of the city administration, personally obtained permission from Iran's Supreme Court to execute her, and put the noose around her neck himself before she was hoisted on a crane jib arm to her death.

Atefeh lost her mother in a car accident. Her father was a drug addict. At the age of 13, a 51 year old former government agent started molesting her. On the night of her wedding to a boy who loved her, she was taken by the authorites and soon after executed without knowledge of her family.

There are at least 81 other children facing execution in Iran. Sign the petition to stop child execution in Iran. Visit: stopchildexecutions.com.

The film clips are from a documentary film made by BB2 called "execution of a teenage girl" which can be viewed in full at : stopchildexecutions.com/mu...

The song "24" is by Jem.