Honored Martyr's Story
Reyhaneh was an artist and interior designer. She met Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi at a cafe and he convinced her to come to his office to discuss a major business deal, hiring her as a decorator. When she met him, he became aggressive, attacked her and attempted to rape her. Reyhaneh stabbed him with a pocket knife and ran out. Since under the circumstances she would have been criminalized if she reported the incident, she ran off and did not call for help to avoid inevitable arrest. Sarbandi bled to death and Reyhaneh, age 19 at the time, was captured in 2007. She published her story in jail memoirs. Although the entire nation knew of her circumstance and fight to escape rape, she was executed by hanging after seven years in prison.