Thursday, August 5, 2010

A "Republic" that Stones Women?


Sakineh Mohammedie Ashtiani has waited since 2006 in jail, and after confessing to adultery when she receives 66 lashes, looking forward to death by stoning, due to occur at any time in the coming weeks at this moment. Her son released a plea to the world to save his mother, whom her children declare to be innocent. As a result he has been called into the prosector's office and threatened. Sakineh's lawyer has been forced to flee and is in a holding cell in Turkey, while Iran demands his extradition. The authroities have arrested his wife and placed her in the worst of the presons, Evin, in Tehran as collatoral to get him back. She has a baby. It gets worse. There apparently have been -- and probably are pending -- more cases of judicial barabarism involving this uniquely cruel form of capital punishment.

Sakineh's children and lawyer indicate she is innocent of the "crime" of adultery and petitions signed by by hundreds of thousands have now caused the Iranian government to issue a statement to say she actually had been guilty of "murder" which couldn't be revealed due to the "sensitivity" of her case during her trial. Brazilian President Lula de Silva' offer of amnesty has been turned down. But beyond all this is the principle that women can be executed by stoning: a especially severe and cruel death, nothing is worse, and it is reserved for women.

The act of stoning has traditionally implied that somehow that Satan is present -- and the fact that it is reserved mostly for women -- as was witch burning during the Inquisition -- indicates a special fear of women. It is a form of terror meant to keep them in their place. The Koran indicates repeatedly that it builds upon the previous "revealed books." That would include the gospels. So one must recall the key teaching: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." (In the Qur'an, that would be referred to as a teaching of Isa Ibn Mariam, one of the single most important prophets along with Moses and Abraham before Muhammad in the Islamic canon.) Are these judges, shock troops, prison "interrogators" and politicians without sin? Hardly.

The current authorities in Iran need to be purged of prison torturers, rapists (in both the Basij and revolutionary guard) and judges who have been complicit in intimidation and murder. These are the men -- and make no mistake, these stones will come from the same sort of men who got a confession from Sakineh a few years back by giving her 66 lashes. This remnant of ancient barbarism in a so-called republic must end. As long as it engages in such practices, Iran's government is not a republic of any sort. It is an inquisition.

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For more information on Sakineh Mohammedie Ashtiani and her sentence to stoing for adultery, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/04/the-free-sakineh-mohammad_n_670540.html

1 comment:

  1. Just a reminder that the stoning of women occurs in other countries.
    The conditions in Saudi Arabia are not too great for women who do conform to the rules--social, political and religious.
    I'm recovering now from reading the (excellent) the very revealing and disturbing life for women (and men, to some degree) portrayed by Zoe Ferraris in "Finding Nouf," and even more so in "City of Veils," which are set in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
    Women can be arrested for wearing pants, driving a car, riding a bike, eating in a public restaurant, and, of course, speaking to men they aren't related to in public, etc.
    It's hard to fathom living in that restrictive society, although when we read about different cultures, we try to be objective and not bring our Western eyes.
    But adultery? I shudder to think what happens to women there for that "crime."

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