Blinded Iranian woman forgives attacker

TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian woman blinded and disfigured by a man who threw acid into her face stood above her attacker Sunday in a hospital operating room as a doctor was about to put several drops of acid in one of his eyes in court-ordered retribution.

The man waited on his knees and wept.

"What do you want to do now?" the doctor asked the woman, 34, whose own face was disfigured in the 2004 attack. "I forgave him, I forgave him," she said, asking the doctor to spare him at the last minute in a dramatic scene broadcast on Iran's state television.

Ameneh Bahrami lost her sight and suffered burns to her face, scalp and body in the attack, carried out by a man who was angered that she refused his marriage proposal.

"It is best to pardon when you are in a position of power," Bahrami said, explaining that she did not want revenge.

It is a legal right for victims in Iran to ask for a strict enforcement of Islamic law, under which an attempt is made to reach a settlement with victims or their families. If no agreement is reached, then "qisas," or eye-for-an-eye retribution, is enforced. -- AP