Stoning Averted for Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, Iran's Alleged Adultress
Eleanor Clift
Contributor
Posted:
07/9/10
The Iranian government backed down under international pressure from carrying out a death sentence by stoning of a woman convicted of adultery, a victory for human-rights activists, but far from the final act in the ongoing drama between the forces of modernism and a perverted and outdated interpretation of Islamic fundamentalism.
The woman, 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, remains in jail with her punishment uncertain. She has already been in prison for five years and received 99 lashes for an "illicit relationship" that she confessed to at the time, but later recanted, saying she was under duress.
The International Committee Against Stoning and Execution – yes, it exists – is urging human-rights groups and celebrities, including Robert Redford, Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, to keep up the pressure on Iran to take the next step to rescind Sakineh's sentence and release her without condition. Mina Ahadi, who 30 years ago faced a death sentence in Iran and heads the committee, told Channel 4 news in the United Kingdom: "Sex outside of marriage and the sexual relations of adults is a private affair. It is not a crime and must never be prosecuted." According to Amnesty International, three other women charged with adultery in Iran since 2006 who escaped death by stoning were eventually executed by hanging.
What brought attention to Sakineh's plight in the male-dominated Islamic culture was the willingness of her 22-year-old son, Sajad Ghader-zade, to publicly defend his mother and put his own life at risk by appealing to the outside world for help, saying there is "no justice" in his country.
In a death-by-stoning case 24 years ago that prompted the documentary, "The Stoning of Soraya M.," the woman's two oldest sons did not stand by her, insuring her condemnation by the family and the broader culture. Progress is slow when measured against our expectations, but the intervening years and generation newly aware of the outside world have made a difference in attitudes in Iran, and in the government's response to outside pressure.
The highest levels of the British government took up Sakineh's cause, with British Foreign Secretary William Hague denouncing death by stoning as "a medieval punishment which has no role in the modern world." It's hard to imagine anybody disagreeing with that, but retired British diplomat Tim Collard posted a blog declaring his "lifelong love affair with the Middle Ages," and pointing out that while the era was brutal with beheadings and burnings, and disemboweling people before chopping them into quarters, stoning is more accurately associated with the biblical period.
The description of exactly how stoning is done is spelled out by civil-rights and civil-liberties activist Tom Head in a book published last year titled "Civil Liberties: A Beginner's Guide." He takes his information from Iran's penal code, which says men should be buried up to their waists and women to their shoulders (so their breasts are covered), and the stones should be small enough that death will not result from one or two blows, but large enough to cause physical harm. A crowd of volunteers throws the stones, and the average execution takes at least 10 to 20 minutes, cruel and unusual punishment for sure.
Death by stoning is so abhorrent that it's easy to get sidetracked by the method of punishment as opposed to the alleged crime. Iran's penal code says adultery must be proven by "repeated confession," or the testimony of witnesses -- four men or three men and two women. Setting aside the ludicrousness of assembling that size audience for anything other than gang rape, the law is not subtle -- two women count as one man. In Sakineh's case, where no eyewitnesses stepped forward, the three judges who found her guilty acted without evidence and on their own knowledge. In Iranian law, judges ruling in "hodud," or cases of morality, don't need evidence and can substitute their own judgment or intuition as to whether the accused is guilty. In other words, it's a set-up.
The woman, 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, remains in jail with her punishment uncertain. She has already been in prison for five years and received 99 lashes for an "illicit relationship" that she confessed to at the time, but later recanted, saying she was under duress.
The International Committee Against Stoning and Execution – yes, it exists – is urging human-rights groups and celebrities, including Robert Redford, Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, to keep up the pressure on Iran to take the next step to rescind Sakineh's sentence and release her without condition. Mina Ahadi, who 30 years ago faced a death sentence in Iran and heads the committee, told Channel 4 news in the United Kingdom: "Sex outside of marriage and the sexual relations of adults is a private affair. It is not a crime and must never be prosecuted." According to Amnesty International, three other women charged with adultery in Iran since 2006 who escaped death by stoning were eventually executed by hanging.
What brought attention to Sakineh's plight in the male-dominated Islamic culture was the willingness of her 22-year-old son, Sajad Ghader-zade, to publicly defend his mother and put his own life at risk by appealing to the outside world for help, saying there is "no justice" in his country.
In a death-by-stoning case 24 years ago that prompted the documentary, "The Stoning of Soraya M.," the woman's two oldest sons did not stand by her, insuring her condemnation by the family and the broader culture. Progress is slow when measured against our expectations, but the intervening years and generation newly aware of the outside world have made a difference in attitudes in Iran, and in the government's response to outside pressure.The highest levels of the British government took up Sakineh's cause, with British Foreign Secretary William Hague denouncing death by stoning as "a medieval punishment which has no role in the modern world." It's hard to imagine anybody disagreeing with that, but retired British diplomat Tim Collard posted a blog declaring his "lifelong love affair with the Middle Ages," and pointing out that while the era was brutal with beheadings and burnings, and disemboweling people before chopping them into quarters, stoning is more accurately associated with the biblical period.
The description of exactly how stoning is done is spelled out by civil-rights and civil-liberties activist Tom Head in a book published last year titled "Civil Liberties: A Beginner's Guide." He takes his information from Iran's penal code, which says men should be buried up to their waists and women to their shoulders (so their breasts are covered), and the stones should be small enough that death will not result from one or two blows, but large enough to cause physical harm. A crowd of volunteers throws the stones, and the average execution takes at least 10 to 20 minutes, cruel and unusual punishment for sure.
Death by stoning is so abhorrent that it's easy to get sidetracked by the method of punishment as opposed to the alleged crime. Iran's penal code says adultery must be proven by "repeated confession," or the testimony of witnesses -- four men or three men and two women. Setting aside the ludicrousness of assembling that size audience for anything other than gang rape, the law is not subtle -- two women count as one man. In Sakineh's case, where no eyewitnesses stepped forward, the three judges who found her guilty acted without evidence and on their own knowledge. In Iranian law, judges ruling in "hodud," or cases of morality, don't need evidence and can substitute their own judgment or intuition as to whether the accused is guilty. In other words, it's a set-up.