Ten days ago, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was just another nameless person on death row, a tally-mark in the ledgers of a remote Iranian prison waiting to be brutally erased.
But last week it was a global outcry that saved her from being stoned to death -- a shocking practice where victims are buried up to their necks in the ground and then pelted in the head with rocks until dying an excruciating death.
Sakineh's brave children told her story to the media, and within hours outrage spread across the world. The uproar spread to the highest levels of government, as Turkey and Britain's Foreign Ministers condemned Sakineh's stoning sentence. Amidst this backlash, Iran announced that the sentence had been suspended.
But while Sakineh will reportedly not be stoned, she may still be hanged -- and, right now, fifteen more people in Iran like Sakineh are awaiting death by stoning.
The vindictive brutality of throwing stones just small enough to make sure the victim suffers before dying, the extremism of a death sentence for the alleged crime of adultery, the double-jeopardy punishment and retroactive charges dumped on her by the Iranian justice system -- these all combined to fuel global outrage and depict in full view the grotesque perversion of justice Sakineh has faced.
Online petitions are helping to channel this outrage into support for the campaign spearheaded by Sakineh's children. Already more than 400,000 people from every corner of the world have signed the Avaaz.org petition calling for Sakineh's release and an end to execution by stoning.
Sakineh was convicted of adultery, like all the other 12 women and one of the men awaiting stoning in Iran. But her children and lawyer say she is innocent and that she did not get a fair trial -- they assert her confession was forced from her and, speaking only Azerbaijani, she did not understand what was being asked of her in court.
This is no Western crusade. Iran's parliament passed a law banning stoning last year, and Iran has signed a UN convention that requires the death penalty only be used for the "most serious crimes." Stoning is even opposed by some Iranian conservatives, and yet still it continues.
Sakineh's lawyer says the Iranian government "is afraid of Iranian public reaction and international attention" to the stoning cases. And after Turkey and Britain's Foreign Ministers spoke out against Sakineh's sentence, it was suspended.
This partial reprieve, triggered by the call from her children for international pressure to save her life, has shown that if enough of us come together and voice our horror, we may be able to save her life and stop stoning once and for all. Join the chorus of conscience -- sign the petition.
In Persian -- the official language of Iran -- the meaning of "Avaaz" is "voice" or "song". Let's make our Avaaz heard.
Ricken Patel, Executive Director, Avaaz.org
FURTHER READING:
An International Appeal to Save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/an-international-appeal-t_b_642265.html
Iranians still facing death by stoning despite 'reprieve', The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/08/iran-death-stoning-adultery
Britain condemns planned Iran stoning as 'medieval', AFP:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjVdkvkzicGeInqw2R10rCKrqs3A
Dr. David Liepert: The Stoning of Women: Quranic Prescription or Barefaced Misogyny?
Has anyone considered bringing in Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter to help negotiate this matter? I recall that Clinton was recently able to negotiate for the release of Lisa Ling and her sister from a North Korean jail. And the North Koreans are certainly no fans of the United States. So if Bill Clinton could do that, couldn't he help Sakineh? And could he even help the 15 others in Iranian jails who also await execution for alleged adultery?
Or, does anyone here know if there is any Muslim in the United States or Canada who is well-respected, and who either holds a prominent position in government or in the public eye? Is there anyone like this? Someone that Ahmadinejad could tolerate just enough to agree to set Sakineh free? Please, if someone knows of any Muslim of the above description, please recommend them to Avaaz.org.
I would start a petition requesting that Bill Clinton, or another of his negotiating prowess, step in now to help free Sakineh, but I've never started a petition before. What's important is that this is acted on quickly. But hopefully this strategy is already in the works at Avaaz ~ I hope so. There isn't time to waste. I don't know how much longer she has. Please help!
Thank you,
Hillary Hays
hillary.hays@yahoo.com
http://www.facebook.com/hillary.hays
Please write emails and letters to the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights;
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
InfoDesk@ohchr.org
nationalinstitutions@ohchr.org
civilsocietyunit@ohchr.org
and please write/ email your congress members and governments.
lethal injection ain't so much fun, either, especially with inadequate evidence gathering and trials.
Let he who is without sin...
As for the details of stoning:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/end-execution-stoning-iran
The Iranian authorities continue to sentence people to death by stoning. Currently there are at least 11 individuals at risk of execution by stoning. According to Iran's Penal Code, execution by stoning is prescribed for "adultery while being married".
The Penal Code specifies the manner of execution and types of stones that should be used. Article 102 states that men will be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts for the purpose of execution by stoning.
Article 104 states, with reference to the penalty for adultery, that the stones used 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". This makes it clear that the purpose of stoning is to inflict pain in a process leading to slow death.
The stoning sentence is so unusual that it is being removed from the legal punishment code.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=134025
This article and other articles are only part of demonization of Iran to prepare US public opinion for war with Iran.
There is an indication that there are some forces within US government that do not care about enormous hardship to Iranians and Americans as a result of a war and want to press ahead with bombing Iran.
We have to contact the WH and Congress and let them know that until US has some troops in ME, bombing Iran equals to a total war between two countries, since Iranian forces have access to both Iraq and Afghanistan with tens of thousands of rockets. Iran has provided 40,000 rockets to Lebanon to defend against Israel's aggression, we can be sure that Iran has way more rockets herself.
Once again here is the evidence that CIA has tried to produce false smoking gun.
Pay attention to minute 4:15 of part 2 about the laptop with false WMD claims
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhiow35bkWw
This time US has failed to produce the false smoking gun.
US will try again to produce false evidence against Iran's nuclear program until it gets something tangible to start a devastating war for Americans and Iranians.
You overlook that PressTV, the pravda or official propaganda channel of IRI has little credibility, especially considering that Amnesty International directly contradicts them.
You overlook, and militate that others follow suit, the ongoing war that IRI inflicts on its people even though we have the example of Ashtiani right in front of us. You're not helping the peace efforts by crying wolf and in effect advocating we put our heads in the sand regarding IRI's abuse &/or throwing our credibility away. The choice isn't between war and ignorance, but the responsibility of the antiwar movement is to show that an attack on Iran only strengthens the worst elements in IRI.
This man is assuming on his own that the international pressure prevented this woman from being stoned to death or executed. The fact of the matter is that there never was stoning as execution for this woman in the card. Additionally, her sentence is still under review.
With politicization of execution these people are making it considerably harder for organization and people like me to get countries like Iran, china and US to eradicate all executions. Executions are wrong committed by any government under any circumstances, for purely humanitarian and effective public policy reasons, politics should have nothing to do with it, but under no circumstance we should legitimize or excuse murder by criminals.
For all who believe
From the plea of Ashtiani's children:
http://www.care2.com/news/member/901922468/1702641
Do not allow our nightmare become a reality,
Protest against our mother’s stoning!...
Help to save our mother. Write to and ask officials to free her. Tell them that she doesn’t have a civil complainant and has not done any wrong. Our mother should not be killed. Is there any one hearing this and rushing to our assistance?
Faride and Sajjad Mohammadi e Ashtiani
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/070/2010/en/b6b20f20-1077-4efa-8763-a6064b10ec6f/mde130702010en.html
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, has been held since 2005. In May 2006 she was convicted of having had an “illicit relationship” with two men and received 99 lashes as her sentence. Despite this, she was subsequently convicted of “adultery while being married", which she has denied, and was sentenced to death by stoning.
She has retracted a “confession” made during interrogation, stating that it was made under duress. However, she was convicted by a majority of three out of five trial judges on the basis of the “knowledge of the judge”, a provision in Iranian law that allows judges to make their own subjective and possibly arbitrary determination regarding guilt even in the absence of clear or conclusive evidence.
Consensual sexual acts such as those criminalized by Iranian law under the provisions for “adultery” do not amount to the “most serious crimes” under which in international law the death penalty may be imposed only as an "exceptional measure" where "there was an intention to kill which resulted in the loss of life".
http://www.stop-stoning.org/node/1165
Judicial spokesmen often give contradictory statements, saying that the Islamic Republic of Iran does not stone people and that such an accusation is a propaganda tool used by the West to degrade Islam. At the same time, however, they defend stoning as part of their laws, reject the accusation that stoning is a human rights abuse, and aver that the Iranian judicial system has a right and duty to implements its own laws and regulations free from foreign intervention...
The newly proposed draft of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran contains provisions for annulling stoning sentences when the execution of such a sentence would damage the reputation of the Islamic Republic and lead to the degradation of Islam. However, there are serious concerns that, if passed, this provision will not necessarily put an end to the practice of stoning in Iran so long as judges continue to invoke religious jurisprudence that overrules or contravenes the proposed prohibition of stoning in the draft Code.
http://www.stop-stoning.org/node/1165
5. Why has the Iranian Republic gone so far with this case?
Many political and religious figures in Iran oppose stoning, for a variety of reasons. Some believe that stoning is not required by Shari’a, or Islamic law. In fact, in 2002, the Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi ordered a moratorium on stoning sentences, claiming that such sentencing degraded the name of Islam and the Islamic Republic and could thus be legitimately abandoned regardless of religious justification. However, because stoning was never repealed from the Islamic Penal Code, it remained possible for judges to continue sentencing death by stoning for adultery. This is due to the structure of the Iranian judicial system.
Since the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahamadinejad became president in 2005, we are seeing an increase in the number of stoning cases. Some Iranian activists speculate that this is because rogue judges feel more empowered to sentence individuals to stoning as they fear less retribution from the “higher ups” in government.
http://www.stop-stoning.org/node/1196
Since we issued our first update on Sakineh Mohammadi Astiani’s case last Friday July 9, the Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women has received new information that she is still facing the imminent threat of being executed. We also received the news that her young son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, who publicly expressed his concern on the plight of his mother has been summoned by the Iranian authorities for some questioning about his activities.
We urge you to continue and step up your support of Sakineh’s case by writing to the Iranian authorities citing the demands below. [follow link for details]
This woman is of the Azerbaijan minority, her 'offence' trial and sentencing all took place in the province of East Azebaijan, where the Azerbaijan heritage dominates.
The Persian dominated central government has passed a moratorium on stonings, and is trying to remove that sentence from the Iranian criminal code. But the Azerbaijan region has ignored that moratorium before, there is an active 'Azerbaijan rights' movement, and has been a foreign sponsored 'Azerbaijan seperation' movement (which used force) in the Iranian past (Russian sponsored, at the time when Iran was a Western ally), and the country that is looking for opportunities to destabalise it is not above looking the other way on things like womens rights (or even human rights) when the people that can offer them what they want don't believe in them.
So, though the central government (and definitely Ahmadinejad) might want to be a little more heavy handed in dealing with the issue of women's rights in the minority regions, if it were, odds are that the very country that is voicing the most outrage over this would then turn arround and try to take advantage of the situation that would be caused if Iran were to be putting more effort into it.
Why have those who financed the petition website here in the USA remained anonymous?