Under Sharia, imposed since the 1979 Islamic revolution, retribution is permitted in cases where bodily injuries are inflicted.

Tasnim reported that two years ago, the convicted attacker threw acid in the face of her victim in the city of Dehdasht, and quoted Majid Karami, the Head of the Judiciary in the province of Kohgiluyeh. “The sentence to blindness in one eye, payment of blood money (compensation), and seven years imprisonment have been confirmed by the highest court,” he stated.

Victims and their families have the final say and can prevent the punishment from being imposed, under the law. Mr. Karami gave no information as to when the sentence was scheduled to be carried out.

Reuters reports that activist Mohammad Surizad in Tehran, said that activists are urging the victims’s family to show clemency, and pardon the convicted woman.

Concerned over the increase in the rate of acid attacks, Iranian officials, have endorsed retribution, but Amnesty International has urged Iran not to inflict the punishment.

Amnesty reported that a man was forcibly blinded in both eyes in Tehran in November 2016, in retribution for blinding a four-year-old girl in an acid attack in June 2009. 

Several acid attacks have been reported in Iran in the past few years. 

In 2011, an Iranian woman was blinded with acid by her suitor after she spurned his marriage offers. She spared him hours before surgeons prepared to blind the man with acid.

In Iran, “eye for an eye” punishment applies to other crimes such as murder. Victim’s families may demand the death of a convicted murderer, or they can commute the sentence in return for financial compensation from the perpetrator.