Though Iran won't actually execute people under 18, their courts will readily sentence children as young a nine to physical punishment, including death, and hold them in inhumane, crowded conditions until they are old enough for their sentences to be carried out.
Sadegh Souri photographed girls in the Juvenile Delinquents Correction Centers, ranging from 13 to 17, some of whom are awaiting their executions. Many are rape survivors, and some have been imprisoned because they were held responsible for their parents' drug crimes.
Mahsa is 17. She fell in love with a boy and intended to marry him, but her father was against the marriage. One day she had an argument with her father, got angry, and killed her father with a kitchen knife. Mahsa's brothers are requesting the death penalty or lex talionis for her. (Lex talionis is the principle or law of retaliation that a punishment inflicted should correspond in degree and kind to the offense of the wrongdoer, as an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; retributive justice.)
Waiting for Capital Punishment [Sadegh Souri/Lensculture]
(via We Make Money Not Art)
