NewsAfter being kept for 13 years behind bars, Kobra Najjar, a woman who was sentenced to be stoned, was finally released from prison last Tuesday. At the moment of release, she seemed bewildered and said these words to explain her feelings: “nobody can understand how I feel.” Rooz spoke with Kobra, her daughter and her attorney.
After repeated requests for clemency, authorities finally agreed to release Kobra on May 3rd on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, like many other prisoners are. Her attorney, Maryam Kian Ersi confirmed the release and told Rooz, “After the head of [Iran’s] judiciary Mr. Shahrudi recommended to the amnesty committee that Kobra’s stoning sentence be commuted, her name was added to the amnesty list.”
Ersi explained the events leading up to Kobra’s release in these words. “On Tuesday I went to the court to review the status of this case and to my astonishment learned that the request for her release had been granted. I did not want to create undue expectations in her family members, and so refrained from informing them of the news. But to my surprise, I discovered that Kobra’s release order was faxed to Rajai-Shahr prison in Karaj where she was staying the very same day.”
Kobra’s daughter Hiro, was 15 when her mother was arrested. Ever since, she has been pursuing her case. She spoke with Rooz with tears in her eyes and being overtaken with emotion. “Ms Ersi refrained from giving me the news to avoid disappointment. She feared that my mother would be kept for 2 or 3 more days because of administrative procedures and knew that I would go crazy in that period. But the child of another prisoner who had been with my mother and whom I had helped in the past called me and told me that my mother had just been released!” she said.
Kobra: I Cannot Believe It
I called Kobra late at night. I had never seen her, but knew so much about her. She too knew that as a member of the campaign against stoning, I had been following up her case.
When we spoke, after the usual niceties and long pauses, Kobra said, “It is as if I am walking in the clouds. I cannot believe that my feet are on the ground. I cannot believe that I am in the presence of my children. Nobody can understand how I feel.” She repeated the last sentence several times.
At 47 Kobra is full of joy. “You know, during these 5 nights that I have come home, I have only been able to sleep for 2 or 3 hours. I simply won’t fall asleep. Everything is so unbelievable. My children, my mother, and everything else. I thank God.” She repeated the last sentence several times as well.
Kobra was arrested in May 1997 for being an accomplice in the murder of her husband. She told her story of how her addicted husband had forced her to turn into a prostitute so she could be with her children and prevent them from harm. She stressed that if she had not done what he threatened her with, she would have been harmed by her husband while her children too would live under his threat. This is how she was charged with adultery. One day, one of the clients that her husband had found for her, killed her addict husband, with Kobra’s knowledge. He then confessed it all to the authorities, and in the process also declared that Kobra was an accomplice in the murder by virtue of knowing of the murder. Then Kobra was arrested, tried and sentenced to 8 years of prison and stoning, and sent to jail.
Kobra’s accomplice however was released from prison when the victim’s family gave their consent to his release, while Kobra’s stoning verdict remained. Until the passage of 12 years when she too was finally released, through an amnesty.
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