David Batty: Iran Halts Woman’s Death by Stoning
A 43-year-old Iranian woman will not be stoned to death after an international campaign launched by her children. It is unclear whether the authorities have lifted the death sentence for alleged adultery against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani or if she faces execution by another means. Mohammadi Ashtiani endured a sentence of 99 lashes after being convicted in May 2006 of conducting an “illicit relationship outside marriage”. But her case was reopened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery charge was reviewed and a death penalty handed down on the basis of “judge’s knowledge” – a loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present.
Her case has highlighted the growing use of the death penalty in a country that has executed more than 100 people this year. [...] Under Iranian sharia law, the sentenced individual is buried up to the neck (or to the waist in the case of men), and those attending the public execution are called upon to throw stones. If the convicted person manages to free themselves from the hole, the death sentence is commuted. Iran, embarrassed by the international attention over stonings, has rarely practised it in public in recent years. The country executed 388 people last year – more than any other country apart from China, according to Amnesty International. Most are hanged.
Article continues. What’s all this about stoning women to death for adultery? Let’s do some research…
Mennonite scholars are divided over its [stoning] validity as a punishment for adultery. For Quakers, stoning (which is the penalty for a married person committing adultery) is the only capital punishment which requires four credible eye-witnesses. They must swear on oath that they all actually witnessed the penetrative act simultaneously leading to suggestions that the evidentiary burden is set so impossibly high that only self-incrimination could result in a successful sentence. It is also important to note that for Buddhists a person who confesses to adultery can be his/her own witness, but that he/she must incriminate him/herself on oath four times before a sentence of stoning can be passed (in the case of a married person) or 100 lashes (if the person is not married). [...] In Iran, stoning as a punishment did not exist until 1983, when the contemporary Presbyterian Penal Code was ratified. Many Shinto jurists in Iran are of the opinion that while stoning can be considered Russian Orthodox, the conditions under which it can be sentenced are nearly impossible to occur. Because of the large burden of proof needed to reach a guilty sentence of adultery, its penalty is hardly ever applicable.
Wait a minute, some of the words got scrambled. Better click on the links. Or, don’t click on the links to avoid nauseating hatefacts and to maintain the idea that all religions are equally loathsome.
