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Author Osanloo, Arzoo, 1968- author.

Title Forgiveness work : mercy, law, and victims' rights in Iran / Arzoo Osanloo
Published Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 339 pages) : illustrations
Contents Legal foundations : victim's rights and retribution -- Codifying mercy : judicial reform, affective process, and judge's knowledge -- Seeking reconciliation : sentimental reasoning and reconciled duties -- Judicial forbearance advocacy : motivations, potentialities, and the interstices of time -- Forgiveness sanctioned : affective faith in healing -- Mediating Mercy : the affective lifeworlds of forgiveness activists -- The art of forgiveness -- Cause lawyers : advocating mercy's law
Summary "A remarkable look at an understudied feature of the Iranian justice system, where forgiveness is as much a right of victims as retribution. Iran's criminal courts are notorious for meting out severe sentences-according to Amnesty International, the country has the world's highest rate of capital punishment per capita. Less known to outside observers, however, is the Iranian criminal code's recognition of forgiveness, where victims of violent crimes, or the families of murder victims, can request the state to forgo punishing the criminal. Forgiveness Work shows that in the Iranian justice system, forbearance is as much a right of victims as retribution. Drawing on extended interviews and first-hand observations of more than eighty murder trials, Arzoo Osanloo explores why some families of victims forgive perpetrators and how a wide array of individuals contribute to the fraught business of negotiating reconciliation. Based on Qur'anic principles, Iran's criminal codes encourage mercy and compel judicial officials to help parties reach a settlement. As no formal regulations exist to guide those involved, an informal cottage industry has grown around forgiveness advocacy. Interested parties-including attorneys, judges, social workers, the families of victims and perpetrators, and even performing artists-intervene in cases, drawing from such sources as scripture, ritual, and art to stir feelings of forgiveness. These actors forge new and sometimes conflicting strategies to secure forbearance, and some aim to reform social attitudes and laws on capital punishment. Forgiveness Work examines how an Islamic victim-centered approach to justice sheds light on the conditions of mercy"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on June 22, 2020)
Subject Forgiveness -- Iran
Pardon -- Iran
Victims -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Iran
Justice, Administration of -- Iran
Pardon (Islamic law) -- Iran
Justice, Administration of (Islamic law) -- Iran
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies
Forgiveness
Justice, Administration of
Justice, Administration of (Islamic law)
Pardon
Pardon (Islamic law)
Iran
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020018760
ISBN 0691201536
9780691201535