An Iranian couple never got a chance to meet after they got married in a prison ceremony over the phone as the groom was h@nged by the Iraninan regime hours later.
Alireza Sepahi, 25, and Mahshad Keshani, 22, were among the thousands arrested during the anti-regime protests earlier this year.
While they were in prison, Keshani pushed for an informal wedding, which held over the phone.
Shortly after their wedding, Sepahi was k!lled by the Islamist government.
Sepahi, who avoided his ex£cution over the summer after he suffered a heart attack on his way to the gallows, agreed to the wedding.
The two lovers were joined by their fathers over the phone inside the Isfahan prison, the Sunday Times reported.
Amirsalar Davoudi, a rights lawyer in Tehran, helped officiate the wedding on Monday, October 5, as he read the couple’s vows for their fathers to bless, with Keshani’s family only able to offer a copy of the Quran, a saffron rock candy and single red rose as dowry.
“It was Mahshad’s idea,” Davoudi told the Times.
“Even now, I wonder how one young woman can possess such courage.
“I do not know how to come to terms with this,” he added.
“The regime is taking revenge on innocent young people for the humiliation it has suffered internationally.”
Hours after the wedding, Sepahi was h@nged at Isfahan’s Shahid Alikhani Square, the site of one of the largest protests against the Islamic republic in January.
It’s been a common execution spot for the regime’s public hangings, an effort to send a message to the people.
Sepahi’s cousin, Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani, was among the men h@nged at the square, which has sparked backlash and protests against the regime.
There were 12 men involved in the Alikhani Square case accused of k!lling four security guards during the protest, with human rights groups saying that the defendants were forced to give false confessions under torture.
Sepahi’s h@nging, along with fellow prisoner Alireza Raisi, means only five of the 12 accused are still alive.
The groom was last at the site in July for his execution, but he suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma before the state could h@ng him.
Sepahi eventually regained consciousness and was allowed one final family visit on Sunday, October 4, a sign that his de@th was imminent.
That is what sparked Keshani’s insistence that Davoudi help marry them before it’s too late, according to The Times.
“I told her, ‘My dear, you understand that this cannot simply be undone?’” Davoudi told her. “She said, ‘Mr Davoudi, I love Alireza.’”
When Davoudi passed on the plan to Sepahi, the young man couldn’t believe what he was hearing and eventually broke down in the prison.
“Alireza was crying, and something deeply painful and beautiful happened. Even the prison officers began to cry,” Davoudi recalled.
After he was h@nged, Sepahi’s family were given one last blow after they were prevented from burying their son in his home town, Iran International reported.