Iranian Human Rights Commission Chief:: "Stoning is neither torture nor an incongruous punishment...If we had execution as a punishment for adultery instead of stoning, they would again complain that the crime and the punishment are not in proportion with each other."

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A woman who committed adultery, having a husband and three children was sentenced to death in an Iranian court in Mashhad

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The execution has apparently gone ahead despite Iran’s moratorium on execution by stoning, a moratorium that had been in effect since 2002," said Jose Diaz in a statement issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

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Judiciary spokesman asked members of Iranian parliament to help amend the country’s penal code.

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In Iran, the legislative entities do not have the freedom to easily change or remove laws that are in harmony with religious principles. The Gaurdian Council in Iran acts to prevent the passage of laws that it finds incompatible with Islamic law.

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The head of the Iranian State Human Rights Committee: “With regards to human rights, we have signed about 4 important documents and neither is against stoning. The westerners oppose stoning sentence based on the interpretations that they have of these laws and their contents. For example they say that this is torture, not punishment, or they say this punishment is not proportional to the committed action or they say there is humiliation in this punishment; these are all opinions…”

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The reason this campaign was not initially taken seriously had several reasons: One was that the number of cases involved was small. Two, it seemed as if this was a single injustice against women and not legally very broad. Third, some people felt why challenge a law that is not supposed to be enforced anyway?

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Since the Iranian government controls all major media such as television, radio and newspapers, the internet is the only communication tool that activists can employ to bypass censorship, filtering and suppression of freedom of speech.

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The stoning sentence of Mokarrameh could be carried out any day, and so could the sentence of ten other people. And since there is no law to impede stoning, we are reaching out to the public. We are asking you to help us find a way to save Mokarrameh’s life from stoning. Tell us how you think Mokarrameh Ebrahimi can be saved.

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After execution of a stoning sentence, the spokesperson for the judiciary said in his interview with Shargh newspaper stated: “We are bound by Sharia and law.”

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"In practice, stoning is nothing more than a scarecrow; meant to scare people away from great sins."

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Stones and rocks with dried up curdled blood lay around the heap. Some are splashed with blood. Some are so black and red with blood, you know right away what they were used for. Stunned, I ask, “You mean they threw these stones? These are way too big”. He shrugs his shoulders.

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Jamshidi: “Lately there has been a stoning sentence executed by a judge in Takistan branch."

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Jafar Kiani was stoned in Aghche-kand, a small village near Takistan, Ghazvin, on Thursday July 5th. His partner, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, could have a similar fate if we do not act now!

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The head of Human Right Committee of Iran: “The contents of human rights’ codes should be strictly according to and within the frame of customs of states and in this matter stands the big mistake of the West, that instead of acquainting with the Islamic laws, they have appointed the procedure of pressure, demurrer, protest and denouncing which is not a proper way.”

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The stoning of Mokarrameh Ebrahimi and the father of her 11 year old illegitimate child was stayed by the written order of the Head of Judiciary in Tehran addressed to the head of the judiciary branch in Takistan. The stoning had been scheduled for Thursday morning, local time, and the order came less than 24 hours before the scheduled time.

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When I first started lobbying on the crimes of honour at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva around ten years ago, no one knew what crimes of honour was, and I was told persistently to go to the New York where ‘they do women.

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In 2002, her punishment came very close to being implemented and there were even leaflets published and distributed in Jolfa by the Judiciary. The public were invited to participate in stoning Hajieh on August 1, 2002, at 4:00 pm at the prison in Jolfa. The execution was to be attended by the city officials: all arrangements had been made. But as a result of the intellect and awareness of the execution judge and the perseverance of Hajieh’s family, the Head of the Judiciary ordered a stay of stoning. Now, after four years, her innocence has been proven in the court.

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The Fact Finding Commission on Stoning in Iran was formed last year to investigate the stoning cases. The commission is comprised of Fardieh Gheyrat, Marzieh Mortazi Langeroudi, Roza Gharehchanloo, and Isa Saharkhiz. The Commission issued a statement addressed to Mr. Shahroudi, the Head of Judiciary, on June 20, 2007 putting forth some fundamental questions about the role of the judiciary with regards to the stoning. The Commission demands official abolishment of stoning. The text of the statement follows.

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The Stop Stoning Forever Campaign invites all citizens of the world to contact the Iranian officials by phone and/or fax and ask them to stop the public stoning of Mokarrameh Ebrahimin, the 43 year old mother of three children, and her partner, the father of her 11 year old child.

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Mokarrameh Ebrahimi is a 43 year old woman and mother of an 11 year old who has spent the past 11 years in Choubin prison in Ghazvin after being sentenced to stoning. The father of the child has also been in prison for 11 years and is scheduled to be stoned with her.

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Seven women are at risk of execution by stoning.

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Turkey’s Sabah Newspaper interview with an Iranian Judge: To this Day Only Two People Have Been Killed by Way of Stoning (rajm).

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Du’a Khalil Aswad, aged about 17 was stoned to death on or around 7 April 2007 by a group of eight or nine men and in the presence of a large crowd in the town of Bashika, near the city of Mosul. Some of her relatives are said to have participated in the killing.

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Shamameh is an uneducated and simple woman who never intended to have a sexual affair with anyone. However, she confessed to her relationship with the victim, Morad, in order to save her husband and brother from a death sentence.

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For as long as one woman is at risk of death at the hands of a legal system devised and enforced by men, then men are responsible. As long as any woman is liable to death by stoning, men are responsible. As women, we take our responsibilities seriously. We must demand that men take their responsibilities seriously too – and men must demand this of themselves.

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Investigating the reasons of stoning, helps us to challenge the causes and effects of patriarchal culture, legal discrimination and gaps between social groups. The real space of this challenge is amongst the public itself rather than the halls of judiciary or parliament.

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Ayatollah Shahroudi, the Head of Judiciary, in his first official reaction to the Stop Stoning Forever campaign responded positively to the appeal written by the stoning victims’ lawyers regarding the methods of proof of guilt in adultery cases.

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Shirin Ebadi: One of the strangeness of our laws is that a homicide is pardonable if the immediate family members consent to it. The judge could give a maximum of ten years in prison if he feels that the convict is a danger to the society. However, in most cases it does not exceed one or two years. While the law is so relaxed in case of a homicide, it is so rigid in case of adultery that a defendant would be sentenced to death by stoning even if the husband consent to it and there is no plaintiff.

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Why is it mostly women that fall victim to the punishment of stoning for adultery? Although there is no single article in the law that mandates stoning punishment to be exclusively for women, the majority of stoning victims are women. The reason lies in the misogynist laws and male-.oriented judicial system that discriminate against women.

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This campaign has been publicised mostly over Internet web sites and foreign media outside Iran. This in reality has made it a political environment for us inside Iran. The censorship of the stoning issue is so high that no internal media will agree to publicize the subject

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The Haji bit his lips and tried to swallow his mocking laughter. He then said: "My sister, why don’t you understand that a law taken from the Shari’a cannot be suspended forever? When we say suspending the verdict, we mean that the execution of the verdict needs to be halted temporarily due to the necessities and conditions in place. But this is not a permanent halt. Whenever the necessities and conditions are taken care of, the verdict will once more be executable."

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Our emphasis is on the proofs required for a stoning sentence. More clearly we have seen that our clients are strictly punished based on the judges ‘knowledge’ which is one of the methods of proof in the Islamic republic punishment rules. A judge’s ‘knowledge’ is one of the methods of proving a stoning verdict.

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Although it seems that the dominant view within the judiciary is in opposition to stoning, the Stop Stoning Forever campaign activists believe that it is necessary to point out cases where stoning has been practiced, or replaced with hanging as a punishment for adultery, and hence emphasize once more the urgency to abolish stoning as a legal punishment.

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Women’s rights activists in Iran have called on the head of the country’s conservative judiciary and the parliament to end the stoning to death of convicted adulterers. Under pressure from the European Union, Iran was said to have introduced a moratorium on stonings in 2002, under pressure from the European Union. But activists accuse judges of perpetuating the practice.

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I remember vividly, it was near the end of winter of 1998, it was cold outside and grounds were covered in snow. I had just been transferred from a temporary jail to the prison. It was my first year of incarceration. They transferred me to room number 5; a room with approximately 30 other occupants of various ages. This room was reserved for prisoners who had been in captivity for a while but had not yet been sentenced.

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The law only allows stoning for adultery; that is, being married and having sex with someone other than the spouse.

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They perform the ablution (ceremonial washing of the body) and cover her body in a white cloth “a kafan”, and then they bury the woman in a hole in the ground up to her chest. Next, they will throw rocks at her head until she dies.

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It is not always the case that the families forgive or call for the acquittal of the convicted person, in many parts of the country not even the families of the convicted will let go of the punishment much less the families of the murdered victims.

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Have you ever touched the bloody skin and hair of your mother who has just been killed in a deep hole?

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The Iranian Head of Judiciary commuted the stoning sentence of a 35-yr woman, Hajieh Ismailvand.

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By Phylis Collier - She was dragged out of her house, her head held in a headlock. For just a second a close up of her face showed it distorted by fear, her eyes wild. There was shouting from the crowd. A sense of pandemonium.
She was dragged out of her house, her head held in a headlock. For just a second a close up of her face showed it distorted by fear, her eyes wild. There was shouting from the crowd. A sense of pandemonium. The raised fist clutching a rock dissolved in a blur of motion as the cell-phone video lost focus. You could only imagine the fury with which she was attacked. (...)

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Source: Radio Farda. Translated by: Manesh - Grand Ayatollah Montazeri expressed his opinion about stoning in a written response to Radio Farda. The complete transcript of Radio Farda’s question and Ayatollah Montazeri’s answer regarding stoning in Islam follows.

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Source: www.mehrangizkar.com Translated by Golriz Farshi - Most of my life, I have written about stoning. The Islamic Republic of Iran and I have grown old together. Along with other activists, I continue to write about stoning and the Islamic Republic continues to carry it out.

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