Campaign Against Woman's Stoning in Iran

http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002667.html

July 28, 2006

Islamic Justice: Another Iranian Woman Due To Be Stoned To Death

We reported on the case of Malak Ghorbani who is under a sentence of stoning, passed recently by a court in Urmia in northern Iran. We also noted that at least five other women are due to be stoned in Iran.

There is now an urgent campaign to try to save the life of another woman, 37-year old Ashraf Kalahri. She is due to be sentenced to death by stoning within the next fortnight.

Her lawyer is Ms. Shadi Sadr, legal counsel for Ashraf Kalahri, and an advocate for gender equality in the Islamic Republic, conducted by Meehandokht media. Lily Mazahery who launched the petition to save Malak Ghorbani has translated this summary of the interview.

Ms. Sadr, despite the fact that, based on an order from Mr. Shahroodi, public stoning of women were supposed to have been banned, there are a number of these sentences that are currently being prepared to be carried out. Do you have any direct and reliable information about this issue?
Shadi Sadr: Yes. In 2002, it was announced that, based on direct orders from Mr. Shahroodi, public stonings were officially banned in Iran. However, because the laws were never taken off the books, stoning sentences continued to legally exist. Numerous courts across Iran have repeatedly issued these sentences, the news of which were only reported sparingly and under a great deal of secrecy. And while many of these sentences were suspended for a couple of years, unfortunately, we have recently witnessed an increase in stoning sentences that were in fact carried out. Specifically, there is a woman in Evin prison by the name of Ashraf Kalhari, who is my client, and last week, she was sentenced to death by public stoning. They told her that her execution was to be carried out in 15 days after her sentencing.
What can be done to prevent sentences of public stoning? What actions have you taken in this context?
Shadi Sadr: The only available option to us was the utilization of a law that states in cases of public stoning, if the condemned woman repents and the judge accepts her repentance, the sentence of public stoning will be commuted. Accordingly, Ms. Kalahri personally wrote a letter to Mr. Shahroodi, explaining that she has repented, and pleaded with him to pardon her. Additionally, we also drafted letters that stated the legal issues associated with stoning sentences, and we submitted those letters to Mr. Shahroodi as well.
What can happen now? Does Mr. Shahroodi have the authority to personally prevent the stoning sentences from being carried out?
Shadi Sadr: Yes! Mr. Shahroodi has complete authority in this context, and, in a similar case, he pardoned another woman. However, the difficulty is that, at this point, we do not know exactly how many women across Iran are facing similar sentences, and we do not know if all of these women would be able to utilize Mr. Shahroodi's pardoning power. My question is what basically happened to Mr. Shahroodi's order to ban stoning verdicts of stoning, which was widely announced on an international scale, and how is that order affecting the judicial and legal systems with respect to the sentences that they issue.
In my opinion, until the law is not actually changed, we will continue to have this problem. It is possible that some of the executions will be prevented as the lawyers keep this issue fresh in the mind of the public. It is also possible that people will become desensitized about these acts and amidst public and international silence these women and their plight will be forever forgotten.
What do you think is the real reason behind the recent resurgence of stoning sentences, and, as a lawyer, what legal steps can you take to block these sentences?
Shadi Sadr: The parliament and the judiciary have the power to change the law. The only thing that we can do is to show that public stoning sentences continue to be issued and executions by public stonings continue to be carried out across the country. For example, a while back, two women were stoned in Mashad, and that news of their execution was published on the internet in a matter of hours. The reaction of the international community to that news forced the Iranian government to stop public stonings for two years. If lawmakers and judges continue to face that type of opposition and pressure, there are enough human rights and international laws that they can use to change these type of laws completely.
Is it possible for you to provide more detail about the reasons for Ms. Kalhari's imprisonment and her sentence?
Shadi Sadr: She is 37 years old and a native of Mashad. However, her case was prepared and tried in Tehran. I took over her case and received her case file only after she had already been tried and had received the sentence of public stoning. After she was arrested, they obtained a forced "confession" from her, stating that she had been involved in an extramarital affair with the man who had murdered her husband. The issue is the highest court in the country has sentenced Ms. Kalhari to 15 years in prison for assisting in a murder and the sentence of public stoning is reserved for married women. The legal argument here is that guiding legal principles mandate that Ms. Kalhari spend 15 years in prison before her sentence of public stoning is carried out. Yet, right now, she has served only 5 years in prison but is being prepared to be stoned in 15 days! This is the objection that we have from a legal perspective in this case, and we have written to Mr. Shahroodi about it.
Ms. Sadr, do you think that in the two weeks that remain, anything can be done that would at least delay Ms. Kalhari's sentence if not entirely commute it?
Shadi Sadr: I hope that that happens. If she is unsuccessful in having her sentence commuted or her repentance accepted or if she is unable to obtain any type of clemency, we all must think about why all of her efforts failed as they did. We must ask ourselves if this is really justice. We must consider the other women who are on the verge of being stoned and examine their status and condition and wonder about their fate.
If Ms. Kalhari's sentence is carried out, what do you, a lawyer who is an active advocate of women's rights, plan to do?
Shadi Sadr: We will continue our objections against inequality and injustice. I remain hopeful that this will not happen, but, even if it does, I will continue my advocacy on behalf of other women in these situations. For as long as the law remains unchanged, women's rights groups will continue to fight for equality and for human rights so that we will never again witness the murder of another woman by public stoning.

This is the background to the situation of stoning in Iran, as mentioned on the http://savemalak.googlepages.com/ashraf

July 24, 2006 -- As the following interview reveals, the Islamic Republic's medieval clobbering machine continues the violent and barbaric execution of women by public stoning. In 2002, after opposition groups managed to release photographs of public stonings, as well a video of the stoning of four victims in Iran, international outrage over this inhuman practice forced the officials of the Islamic regime to issue a pledge to halt this spiteful practice.

Yet, despite the Islamic regime's claim that it has banned the violent and abhorrent practice of stoning, nothing has been done to remove the provision on stoning in the Islamic Punishment Act. Nor has any governmental official or member of the judiciary has called for a moratorium on stoning. Consequently, public stonings of women have continued unabatedly, and, in recent months, sentences of public stoning have actually increased. These actions are indicative of the Islamic regime's deep-seated misogyny, its complete disregard for women as human beings, and the ruling government's continued violations of human rights. The Islamic regime utilizes these abhorrent and violent acts to enforce a rein of fear and terror that would secure its survival and silence any opposition to its occupation of Iran. Meanwhile, the international community allows these practices to continue by keeping silent about the on-going human rights violations in Iran, and by failing to report about the inhumane treatment of women and children, even when such acts arise to the level of crimes against humanity, which is precisely what the public stoning of women and girls happens to be.



When a woman is stoned to death in Iran, as happened frequently in the wake of the 1979 revolution, she is covered in a white sheet and buried up to her breasts in a hole. Article 102 of Iran's Penal Code says that men should be buried up to their waists, and women up to their breasts.

Only small stones are used, to prolong the agony of the punishment, though these must be larger than a pebble. Article 104 of Iran's Penal Code states that when adulters are stoned that the stones should "not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes, nor should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones."

Often, the face of the woman is covered, so she does not see her assailants, and they do not see her. In films I have seen of public stonings, it takes several minutes for the victim to die. The woman pictured above was stoned to death in Iran.

If you really want to know what happens when such "Islamic justice" takes place, a truly disturbing video of stonings can be found HERE. http://www.apostatesofislam.com/media/stoning.htm Warning - the video is graphic, and upsetting.

Please - petitions can help. We urged you, our readers to SIGN the petition to save another Iranian woman from being hanged, Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi. Nazanin's hanging was postponed, and as a result of the international pressure, she will have a retrial in August. Nazanin was attacked by a rapist and killed the assailant in self-defense.

So please, do not ignore this: PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION
http://www.petitiononline.com/AshrafK/petition.html

and about another women who could be stoned and another petition

http://savemalak.googlepages.com/home

http://www.petitiononline.com/Malak/petition.html

 

Yea, well, I'm totally against all that, but that wouldn't be surprising, since I'm against the death penalty altogether. It just so happens that the US executes more people than any other country other than China, when most civilized countries abolished such practices decades ago. Many of the people sentenced to death in the US in the past couple of decades were later proven to be innocent by DNA evidence that advocacy groups used to help exonerate them, and the government fought to even have that exposed. A lot of those people aren't alive anymore, either. At least 135 innocent people have been wrongly sentenced to death in this country, and many of them didn't live to see themselves exonerated. And the courts and prosecutors couldn't have given a rat's ass that they were wrongly condemning people. They couldn't have cared less. Oh, what a nice, civilized place we have here-not like those barbaric Iranians...

What a civilized country that the US is, huh? Americans need to fix what's broke in their own country before they start preaching to other countries about how they should do things. Maybe then other countries would want to emulate the way we do things here. Sure Iran is messed up in a lot of ways, but so is the US. I'm not gonna help beat war drums to demonize Iran at the moment, who is Bush's new boogeyman-the next country he wants to invade. When Bush was Governor of Texas, he presided over the biggest killing machine in the Western Hemisphere. Now he wants to 'liberate' Iran. Maybe he should liberate his own country first.

 

jonny2mad

Excuse me..... butI don't get it..... In Iran they sentence to death for both men & women..... But why the article implies that it is only women & women are suffering...... In Iran, if married women or man commits adultry, they get death panelty. THAT IS THE LAW THERE. & Every country have their own law. You are NOT allowed to cheat on your wife in Iran.... nor she cheats on you.

& you cannot go & force the world to follow a specific law that you believe. In Iran drinking alcohol is illegal & in USA & here in Canada it is OK.

Our problem is that we try to force the world to do it our way.

I have never been to Iran but I have been to places similar to it...believe me on this one.... It is much safer to drive at night in tehran than any place in USA.

Also maybe men & women over there are confortable with death penelty law.

 

well you have more women being stoned than men, often on poor evidence.

also the idea of stoning isnt just to kill the person in a quick way like say shooting them or the electric chair or lethal injection .

its made to be painful and slow thats why they only use small stones so that one doesnt stun the person or kill them in one go.

iran is a theocracy where you can only vote for people who are veted by the religous authoritys so we dont know what the majority of people want .

and if say they wanted to bring back slavery would that be ok ?

or if say they started burning witches in sweden would that be ok ?

if burning witches in sweden wasnt ok and you would protest against that but not protest about the same actions in Iran, isnt that racism..

stoning only started in iran in the 80s you didnt have stoning under the shah it was brought in by fundermentalists

 

and if you take the view that we shouldnt protest about what people in other cultures do why the hell are you against isreal bombing lebanon couldnt they say thats their culture, I mean it isnt happening in your country .

hezbollah by the way would support stoning as they are shia fundermentalists and supported by iran

 

I don't support Hezbollah-I'm a Christian. But I also happen to be against the death penalty, period-including in the United States. I didn't say that we shouldn't protest what people in other cultures do, as I prefaced my post by saying that I don't agree with what Iran is doing-nor do I agree with what the US is doing, either. The point I was trying to make is that the US has a habit of pointing the finger at other countries and ignoring its own problems, thereby feeling superior to everybody else. As far as I'm concerned the death penalty should be abolished throughout the whole planet, across the board.

 

Protesting judicial killing abroad does not stop people from addressing our own faults.

 

If The U.S.A. is so fucked up, Why did you emigrate here?

If Iran and the US are equivalent, did you consider moving to Iran ?

There are Plenty of Iranians in California, are any moving back ?
are Iranians still imigrating to The US ?

Moral Equovalence is so much chickenshit. Use a little discernment.