Woman Spares Man Who Blinded Her With Acid

As Ramadan begins in the Islamic world this week, a remarkable story of forgiveness out of Iran: Ameneh Bahrami halted the "eye for an eye" blinding of Majid Movahedi, who blinded and disfigured her seven years ago when he dumped a bucket of acid on her. Movahedi was minutes away from having acid dripped into his own eyes and had already been given anesthetic when Bahrami stopped his punishment. "Such revenge is not worth it," she tells CNN.

"Each of us, individually, must try and treat others with respect and kindness in order to have a better society," she adds. Movahedi threw acid on Bahrami after she rejected his advances for two years, and at the time he was sentenced she wanted him to suffer the same fate. The sentence was postponed in May after Amnesty International protested it. A doctor and another Iranian man helped bring about Bahrami's change of heart, one of them encouraging her to prove Iranians are forgiving. Movahedi, on the other hand, is not repentant, Bahrami says—he's even been rude to her since his punishment was halted. (More Ameneh Bahrami stories.)