On this date in 2009, Soheila Ghadiri (or Qadiri) was one of five prisoners hanged at Tehran’s Evin Prison.

The homeless 28-year-old killed her newborn child in a possible bout of post-partum depression — telling the court (according to this German anti-death penalty site),

I ran away from my home at age 16 and married the boy I loved. He died in an accident and after that I commenced prostitution and became addicted to drugs. I contracted HIV and hepatitis. When my baby was born, I killed her because I did not want to have the same fate as me.

It’s been reported that the prosecution against her advanced in spite of the forgiveness extended her by the victim’s family; one supposes in this case that means the family of her late husband; ordinarily, under Iran’s sharia law, the victim’s family has the right to pardon an offender any time up to or even during the execution.

You’ll need Persian to understand this video blog about Soheila Ghadiri by Iranian opposition figure Azar Majedi:

On this day..

• 1647: Francesco Toraldo
• 1773: Levi Ames, Boston burglar
• 1826: Seventy-two Janissaries
• 1898: George Clark, fratricide
• 1573: Hugh Cahun, unjustly
• 1621: Rodrigo Calderon, ambitious
• 1698: 250 Streltsy from the walls of Moscow
• 1865: An unnamed Obeah man
• 1803: Thomas Russell, the man from God knows where
• 1869: Charles Carpentier
• 1865: Mexican Republican officers, under the Black Decree
• 1407: Chen Zuyi, Zheng He's prisoner