The Photo As Evidence: Hangings in Iran

It was so nice to see the photos of the jubilant Iraqi soccer team on the front page of the New York Times, and reading the accompanying comments to the effect that having a winning team might spur peace throughout the country. Maybe the photos were evidence of something good that is about to happen. But as for evidence, we should also be seeing pictures like this one, which shows a public hanging that took place in the city of Mashad, Iran. (The image is credited to Halabisaz/AP.) According to reports I’ve read, the men were convicted of rape, but the hanging itself was part of a very visible crackdown on local “thugs.” An additional 12 people were hanged last week in Tehran for “rape, criminal acts, abduction, and selling drugs.”  Somehow, this image didn’t make the Times front page. Did anyone else see it anywhere?
--David Schonauer

Comments

[Keith Nolan]

Now if only the US published the many pictures of their own barbaric death penalty practices!

[Mikkel Tscherning]

Noticed this in the international spiegel online version wednesday - http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,497692,00.html

"Police officers and other spectators look on as five convicted criminals are publicly hanged in Mashad, Iran on Wednesday. The criminals were convicted on various charges of rape, robbery and kidnapping, according to reports on the official Web site of the Iranian state broadcasting company. It was the second round of collective executions in 10 days -- earlier in July authorities hanged 12 criminals convicted on similar charges in Tehran."

The image surely caught my eye

[David Schonauer]

It's a pretty amazing picture. There are a few other photos of the hanging floating around the Internet, but all in all the story wasn't that well covered. Most newspapers still want to be family publications that won't upset anyone before they've had their breakfast, and that's one reason pictures like this don't get seen. But it really does describe what the world of Iran is like now.

[kinga kenig]

Gazeta Wyborcza, Polish daily newspaper, published several pictures, as a picture story with text at its world pages.

[Michael T Wagner]

These criminal deserve the punishment. They are gangsters and murderers! You break the law you pay the price. It's as simple as that. All you niave Americans think Iran is such a bad place. It's not. It's actually very friendly and quite misunderstood to you Americans who live a sheltered media controlled life.