Hanged Iranian Woman: 'I Don't Want to Rot in the Soil'

Reyhaneh Jabbari lost her life and her years-long court struggle at dawn yesterday, as Iran defied international outcry and hanged the woman convicted of killing her would-be rapist, but she left behind a will with final instructions utterly devoid of rancor, reports the Sunday Times, via the Daily Mail. "I don't want to rot in the soil," she says of her desire for her organs to be donated anonymously to "someone who needs them." To her mother, Sholeh Pakravan, Jabbari instructs her not to wear black, saying, "Please don't cry. I love you." And "I wish I could have hugged you until I died."

The Mail notes that Pakravan was today spotted sobbing outside the Tehran prison where her daughter was executed. "After seven and a half years of pain and suffering, is this how my dear child comes to her end?" she had earlier in the week posted on Facebook. Backlash against Iran over the execution continues, reports USA Today, with a State Department spokeswoman citing "serious concerns with the fairness of the trial" and faulting Tehran for proceeding " with this execution despite an international outcry ." "This is another bloody stain on Iran's human rights record," said an Amnesty International rep, calling Jabbari's death "deeply disappointing in the extreme." (More Reyhaneh Jabbari stories.)