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New Round of Stoning in Iran
By IHRV | January 22, 2009
Alireza Jamshidi, the spokesman for the Office of the Judiciary, on January 11 confirmed that, “The stoning of three men at the beginning of January was executed in the city of Mashhad. The stoning of these three men, who were accused of adultery, took place in the cemetery of this holy city. One of the men, called Mahmud, who is an Afghan citizen and was severely wounded, escaped from the pitch that he was buried in up to his chest and which was especially dug for the stoning. However, Houshang Khodadad and the other man, whose identity is not known, died due to the severity of the injuries caused by the strikes during the stoning. It is necessary to mention that “Zenaye Mohsene” (adultery) refers to voluntary sexual relations between a married person and somebody other than his or her spouse. Since the stoning of Jafar Kiani in May 2007 and the stoning of Mahbubeh M. and Abbass H. in April 2006, this is the most recent report of a stoning verdict being carried out. Stonings have been carried out in Iran throughout the last three years. This is testimony to the fact that as long as this punishment exists within Iranian law, the statements of the head of the Judiciary emphasizing the fact that he has indeed ordered and end to the declaration of stoning verdicts has no real value. Currently there are nine other inmates in different prisons throughout the country such as, including prisons in Tehran, Ahvaz, Mashhad, Karaj and Esfahan, who are facing the threat of stoning. The names of the prisoners are as follows: 1-Kobra Najjar (Rajayee Shahr Prison in Karaj), 2-Iran A. (Sepidar Prison in Esfahan), 3-Kheiriyeh V. (Sepidar Prison in Esfahan), 4-Ashraf Kalhor (Evin Prison in Tehran), 5-Abdollah Farivar (Sari Prison), 6-Gilan Mohammadi (Esfahan Central Prison), 7-Gholam-Ali Eskandari (Esfahan Central Prison), 8-Afsaneh R. (Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz), 9-M. Kh., who is a female (Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad).
It is worth mentioning that in the Islamic Punishment Bill, which is being considered for approval in the parliament (Majlis), Zenaye Mohsene (adultery) is still considered a sin and punishable by stoning. Should this bill be approved by the parliament, it could cause an increase in stonings. However, there is a campaign against stoning in Iran that started with the stoning of two people in Mashahd. So far eight people have escaped stoning because of the activism of this campaign. Stoning is a violent and inhumane punishment that can be considered torture and which violates human rights laws and regulations. This form of punishment can increase discrimination against women. Women who have been stoned have been from poor and families or were women who were unable to divorce. These women were either married to husbands who were addicts, or were subjects of domestic abuse, or their husbands had attempted to marry multiple women. It looks like this kind of punishment has been one which was directed exclusively against women, but which has now begun targeting men in order to spread the atmosphere of fear, terror and panic in Iran. Such a shift will also undermine the understanding that stoning verdicts targets only women.
Stoning punishments do not exist in the Quran and belong to the punishment systems of past ages. Therefore, given the current conditions, this verdict needs to be modified by the Fatwas of some of the Muslim Mujtahids and other reformers, since the execution of this act will weaken and diminish Islam. Nevertheless, the government deems the changing of these verdicts as a weakening of the fundamental and traditional readings of the Shi’a fighh (Islamic Jurisprudence), therefore, they resist the omission of stoning from criminal punishment legislation in Iran. They believe that such an act will impair the basis of the government’s legitimacy and ideology.
Official statistics show that stoning verdict victims are usually from the lower and the most destitute classes of society, and that this has not had any effect on the rising rate of sexual perversion and prostitution in society.
For that reason, it seems that the repeated execution of such a cruel verdict is to advance government’s political objectives. This has increased the rate of violence in society and intensified the sensitivity of the international society and human rights organizations.
Topics: analysis |