Let’s end the week with some really good news, and that is the release of 19-year old Nazanin Fatehi who faced the death penalty in Iran for killing a man who tried to rape her a few years ago. The campaign to get her released was initiated and led by Iranian-born and Vancouver-based artist and model Nazanin Afshin-Jam.

This affair got momentum apparently after someone in Europe who was concerned over Fatehi’s fate googled her name, but ended up finding only references to that other, more famous, Nazanin and contacted her. The latter got intrigued by the case, launched a website and a very active campaign which concluded this week with the release of Fatehi:

Last year she received a new trial and a five-judge panel unanimously overturned the murder charge.

Afshin-Jam's year-long campaign to save her namesake's life included a petition signed by 345,000 people, numerous speeches and rallies worldwide and months on the media circuit.

"Just the struggle kept me motivated to finally see it through to the end," said Afshin-Jam. "There were times when I was exhausted when I only had a few hours sleep each night but nothing was going to stop me until I knew I'd done everything that I could.

"I thought, I have to help this girl," Afshin-Jam said. "The pure injustice of it was what compelled me to take action."

It is an amazing but also truly encouraging story of what one individual can accomplish in the face of incredible odds. One can only hope that Afshin-Jam’s campaign continues as a platform for the many other women and men that languish in Iranian jails as a result of discriminatory laws and sexual prejudices.

NOTE: Some interesting (legal) background on the case can be found here.