originating from Iranian opponents of Khomeini:
Another legal problem from the religious
angle that Khomeini's regime has been facing
lately involves the execution of virgin girls ...
the troubled conscience of ... Islamic judges
was pacified when one Islamic authority ruled that
the virgin girls sentenced to death could be married
off to Islamic Revolutionary Guards for a few hours.
After defloration by their temporary husbands, the
girls could then be executed "Islamically" without
pangs of religious conscientiousness.
(Irfani 1983: 266 67)
To many in the West, this passage sums up their concept of Islamic justice. Although Westerners have heard, vaguely, of the terms "Shia" and "Sunni," they are not at all aware of how far Khomeini is from being any sort of religious authority among Sunni Muslims. Even less are they aware of the degree to which Khomeinism represents his own and his followers' interpretations, a
...