A former Miss Canada says time is running out to save a young Iranian woman sentenced to death by hanging.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam is trying to help a 19-year-old woman who happens to share her first name, Nazanin Fatehi.

"She's young, she was defending herself. She's not a criminal, she's the victim," Afshin-Jam told CTV News.

Fatehi was sentenced to death in an Iranian court a year ago, after admitting to stabbing to death one of three men who tried to rape her and a 16-year-old relative. Fatehi was 17 at the time.

In June, her death sentence was stayed and a new trial ordered. The second trial is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.

According to the Iranian daily newspaper Etemaad, Fatehi and her niece were in a park outside Tehran with their boyfriends when they were approached by three men. The boys fled after the men pushed the girls to the ground. Fatehi drew a knife and stabbed one man in the arm and another in the chest, killing him.

"I say to myself, if I was still in Iran that could have been me," said Afshin-Jam.

Under Iran's strict laws on chastity, if Fatehi had allowed the men to rape her and her niece, the girls would have been subjected to 100 lashes.

If they had been married at the time they were raped they would likely have been found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.

Self-defence is a valid defence for murder in Iran, but it depends largely on the circumstances. For example, the fact that Fatehi and her niece were in a park in the evening could have affected her defence.

"Under Shariah law, the life of a woman is worth half that of a man and therefore her testimony as well in court," explained Afshin-Jam.

Afshin-Jam, who won the Miss Canada pageant in 2003 and was born in Iran, took up the cause last year.

She has since become the figurehead of what is now an international campaign to have Fatehi freed. The European Union has denounced the death sentence and Amnesty International is lobbying for Nazanin's release.

"For some reason, when it comes to human rights cases it seems like they listen to me," she said.

Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Charter of the Rights of the Child, which prohibit the execution of anyone under 18. Yet, Amnesty International has recorded 18 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990.

Afshin-Jam set up a trust that has enabled Fatehi to have access to one of the best lawyers in the country and began a petition to present to the Iranian government.

"So far, we have over 260,000 signatures. And in the last few days, it's jumping quite a bit because of the momentum. People know that there's less than 24 hours now to get this story out," she said.

It remains to be seen whether all the international attention will influence the court in Iran, but in the past, the judiciary has bowed to pressure. In 1997, a woman who was sentenced to death by hanging for shooting a police officer who allegedly tried to rape her was later released.

Afshin-Jam says she's not able to speculate on whether her campaign is working, "but based on past cases we've seen, with enough international pressure these cases of executions are stayed and the woman is often released."

Afshin-Jam is encouraging Canadian to go to her website, HelpNazanin.com and sign the petition and fax personal letters to Iranian officials, "to put pressure on them to do the right thing on January 10th."

With a report by CTV's Todd Battis