Iran: One Day Left To Save Woman From Being Stoned To Death

[democratic]

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/action/index.shtml

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news/press/15825.shtml

December 20, 2004
Amnesty International news
Amnesty International UK

An Iranian woman charged with adultery faces death by stoning, reportedly by tomorrow (21 Dec) after her death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court last month.

Her unnamed co-defendant is at risk of imminent execution by hanging. Amnesty International members are now faxing urgent appeals to the Iranian authorities, calling for the execution to be stopped.

According to reports, Hajieh Esmailvand was sentenced to five years imprisonment, to be followed by execution by stoning, for adultery with an unnamed man who at the time was a 17 year old minor. Although the exact date of her arrest and trial are not known, it is reported that she has been imprisoned in the town of Jolfa, in the north west of Iran, since January 2000.

The Iranian Penal Code is very specific about the manner of execution and types of stones which 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".

All death sentences in Iran must be upheld by the Supreme Court before they can be carried out. In November 2004, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Hajieh Esmailvand but changed the lower court's verdict from ‘death by hanging’ to ‘death by stoning’. Reports suggest that the Supreme Court has ordered that the remainder of Hajieh’s five year prison sentence be annulled so that the stoning sentence can be carried out before 21 December.

[Trajan]

1. How can anyone complain ? ...

The Quran demands it ...

The Bible advises it ...

THIS Atheist is sickened by such an outrageous sentence ....

‘If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge this evil from Israel.’ (Deuteronomy 22:22)

[KingChicken]

2. Nutjobs, come outside of the cave primitive people, stop the torture...

Humans can be really slow to figure it out some times, this is not the way to solve problems...

[LynnTheDem]

3. Who will save the children & mentally retarded from being executed in USA?

How about bush's Afghanistan, where execution by stoning for adultery is still the law, under bush's handpicked Karzai-puppet.

How come you never bother posting that info?

Just wondering.

[cali]

5. You're nothing if not reliable.

By your lights no criticism of any state or entity other than the U.S. is legitimate. I, for one, and I hope I'm not alone, find that fucked up to the max. Very few people here are apologists for the U.S. There are dozens, if not hundreds of threads each day that are highly critical of the U.S. If stoning of women is going on in Afghanistan, sanctioned by the state, I want to know about it, but it doesn't lessen the horror of this case, or others in Iran. Posting this Amnesty alert was perfectly appropriate.

[Bono71]

6. Great Post, and I second your sentiments.

[cali]

7. thank you because

I've had it with this bullshit, where you can't criticize any nation or group but the great american satan without being rebuked for it. And I hope others speak out as well.

[Bono71]

8. What amazes me is that when amnesty (rightly) calls out

the US for abuse in places like Iraq, some on this board are all for it. But, when Amnesty criticizes Cuba, Iran or some other country, all of a sudden, Amnesty no longer has any credibility, or has been duped by some "capitalistic conspiracy machine." It is laughable. Bush may have thrown away some of this country's credibility on moral issues, but we as individuals certainly can state our distgust with governments that murder women for having consenting sex.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[retread]

12. I am slow. Please tell me how you added to the dialog by attacking

the messenger?

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gottaB]

16. OP primarily posts about Iran--so?

Some posters post primarily about Israel, Germany, UK, Canada. OP posts about Iran. So what?

If you don't mean to attack the messenger, you could pose it as a general proposition: We should declare moratoria on reporting about countries that BushCo is hostile to.

We can even take it a step further. If any statement about a foreign country is in any way consistent with propaganda eminating from the Bush administration, it should be deleted.

[LynnTheDem]

19. I find it interesting

that this poster ONLY posts about Iran atrocities...right in line with current bush propaganda. Guess I'm just overly suspicious, especially when this poster never bothers to post articles about the same atrocities happening under bush's control.

This poster is free to post anything he wants; I never said otherwise.

I simply asked WHY this poster ONLY posts about Iran's atrocities while ignoring the same atrocities happening in Afghanistan under bush's handpicked president, and in Saudi Arabia.

[Bono71]

32. Hold on, I think you have to distinguish between the two...

I have yet to see anyone in this forum advocate war in Iran. The fact that people may post topics that show how tyranical the current regime is, in no way advocates war. It simply shines a light on the plight of the oppressed. If amnesty's letter writing campaign saves the day (and I pray that it does) that is all that matters.

The woman cited in the post has little time before she is killed. By posting in this forum maybe some people will take the time to participate in urgent action or some other program that could help save a woman's life.

[Trajan]

34. Honestly ....

Islamic states who adhere to Sharia Law are awful places ....

No matter WHAT the US does; Sharia does not promote the freedom of individual thought ... and is a reversal of 300 years of enlightened thought in the west ...

I despise what George Bush does (Btw: it is NOT 'america' doing this: it is the party in power, which does NOT have my support) ....

I despise what Theocracy does as well ...

Insisting that ALL injustice in the world be cast through the prism of US/Neocon stridency before being philosophically considered on the whole, is a limit I refuse to adhere to ....

Injustice exists everywhere, not just where George is ...

[Milspec]

42. I may be missing something

The fact that Democratic posts on this subject makes the subject matter untrue??

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[m0nkeyneck]

10. ur not alone

we may have a below average admin w/ retarded policy @ the moment but the US is still the greatest country on earth..

[LynnTheDem]

11. Really?

Torture is authorized by the US govt. The US govt has waged the Supreme Crime; a war of aggression on a sovereign nation, which has so far killed an estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians. The US runs a gulag at Gitmo.

And this you call the "greatest nation on earth". I'd say we have a ways to go.

[m0nkeyneck]

14. greatest means..

better than all others; not perfect

[LynnTheDem]

15. I don't think we are better than all others.

We don't have the most personal freedoms of any nation; we don't have the best live birth rate of any nation -hell, even Pakistan beats us on live births; we're not #1 in science or medicine or technology...and bush is doing his best to drop us even further down the lists on all of the above. Our economy is being flushed down the toilet, our middle class is disappearing, our poor and homeless are growing, and we have starving children and adults. Dissent is being equated with "treason" and our govt warns American citizens to "watch what they say".

Not to mention the immense human rights, USC, international law and GC violations of Gitmo, Iraq, etc.

Nope, imo we are not the greatest nation. We had the potential to be; now I'm not sure we even have that.

[m0nkeyneck]

17. where did ms. pacman come from?

the defense rests ;-)

[LynnTheDem]

22. If "ms pacman" is me, I come from the United States of America.

And in what used to be the USA, a person had the right to hold their own opinion without having a "defense" to rest. ;)

[m0nkeyneck]

25. lol ..i was referring to the video game

[LynnTheDem]

28. We're the greatest because the game came from the US?

Must be a really good game, lol!

[Mandate My Ass]

20. Hey Lynn. You go, girl!

We have to remove the beam from our own eye before we can address the mote in another's.

We ain't in America anymore anyway. We're in Dumbf**kistan.

[LynnTheDem]

29. So true.

Dumbf*ckistan run by the Talibornagains. :(

[VegasWolf]

23. ReallY??? The US the greatest county?? n/t

[m0nkeyneck]

27. personal opinion; not a scientific poll

[Djinn]

46. really

how many others have you lived in?

[leftynyc]

49. Thank you for expressing exactly what I was thinking (eom)

[jellybelly]

36. smart....

so nobody should post a topic about a woman being stoned? That post title should've been been "I know the US is worse but Iran is stoning a woman":eyes:

[TexasSissy]

4. This is horrific. That this could happen

in this day and age. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. Horrible. Horrible.

Horrible.

[maxsolomon]

18. tilting at windmills

she's going to die no matter what we do.

just pray that someday the reckoning will come for the Mullahs in Iran. Given the population dynamics; it can't be that far away.

"there's a mighty judgement coming, but i can't say when"
- L. Cohen, Poet & Genius

[TO Kid]

21. Right

I agree that the regime in Iran will fall on it's own- I just hope it happens before they get nukes.

[LynnTheDem]

26. I hope we're also still hoping the day of reckoning for bush's installed

govt in Afghanistan will also come; they still stone women to death for adultery too. And of course Saudi Arabia is even worse.

Will we ever hear MSM report on Afghanistan's still stoning women to death for adultery? Or Saudi's beheadings?

Not bloody likely.

[Gelliebeans]

31. Golly Lynn

Didn't you see the news coverage regarding women in Afghanistan they ARE voting all because of "our" liberation. <sarcasm off>

Isn't it funny that after we invade a country we cease to hear about the atrocities that are continually committed. I wonder if that is a coincidence?

[LynnTheDem]

33. I was wondering too

whether that was just a coincidence. I bet we both come to the same conclusion, too. :D

[VegasWolf]

24. They are just working out the last minute TV coverage details. n/t

[daleo]

30. One way or another, I hope we find out what happens

That should help put the matter into perspective.

Personally, I don't believe in capital punishment for any crime (if only because the state gets the wrong person so often), especially a "crime" like adultery. So, if this goes ahead it is deplorable.

On the other hand, I can recognize that the recent emphasis on Iran's record in this regard, to the near exclusion of other countries that may well be far worse, could be part of a propaganda campaign to soften up western populations for another invasion and war on a state with vast reserves of oil.

[oblivious]

35. This still smells like propaganda.

Again no sources (According to "reports").

Again, no mention that stoning sentences have been suspended since the end of 2002.

Iran's trying to make a deal with the EU right now. This just doesn't fit. I don't buy it. But I will apologize for my skepticism if I am wrong.

[jellybelly]

37. yes

I completely trust Iranian law. No stonings since 2002 :puke:

[oblivious]

38. Can you provide any proof of any stonings since then? Or just hearsay?

[livinginphotographs]

50. Yeah, because Amnesty International is nothing but a neo-con front.

:eyes:

[oblivious]

51. Go to the Amnesty site. No stonings in Iran since 2002.

Two (maybe) in 2002 - one man and one woman - though no confirmation.

[livinginphotographs]

55. Your point being?

I don't think Amnesty International is going to lie to promote another Bush war. Do you?

[oblivious]

58. My point being Amnesty may be an unwitting dupe here.

We know that both Desert Storm and The 2003 Iraq war were fueled by propaganda. In the first war, fake stories were supplied by members of the Kuwaiti elite and the Pentagon. In the year leading up to the second war, many of the lies were spread by overseas Iraqi defector groups like Chalabi's and Allawi's. Stories that the press and the Pentagon spread liberally without doing any research of their own.

If Amnesty had done their own research they would have been able to name the newspapers in their articles. If they had been honest they would have mentioned, as Reuters has, that stoning has been suspended since the end of 2002 because of European pressure. Since they have not provided this information, I suspect they got it from one of the defector groups - anecdotal evidence - from a cousin of a friend, etc.

People trust AI. Newspapers across Europe print their releases word for word. So they have a responsibility to be sure of what they are printing.

I contributed to AI for several years because I appreciate what they do. But they should be aware that their reports are being used to fuel emotions in a possible lead up to an attack on Iran. So they need to be sure and they need to provide complete information when it is available.

[livinginphotographs]

65. Nothing wrong with that.

And by the way, I agree with you about being responsible with their information.

Yet, I take issue with the attitude of "no matter what goes in on other countries, America is worse." It's about seeing the forest for the trees, and realizing that injustice anywhere, whether committed by America or not, is a threat to justice everywhere.

Yes, America has committed countless crimes against the Iraqi people. But that doesn't excuse the possibility of Iran stoning a woman to death for adultery. I oppose fundamentalism in all forms, whether its Osama, Jerry Falwell, or extreme Iranian religious leaders.

So I'm probably not arguing with you directly, more with some of the attitudes in this entire thread.

[GarySeven]

39. Why do liberals in the U.S. not defend liberalism?

We seem only interested in preserving liberalism - specifically in preserving liberalism as it exists here - and not in SPREADING liberalism. The women in Iran and throughout the Muslim world need help to liberate themselves from the religious tyranny that so long limited the rights of women in the West. Christian teachings once went against women's interest, but the Enlightenment and two centuries of social advancement changed that perception. It has long been said that the Muslim world needs a Reformation. Who better to start such a reformation than the very people who saved Christianity from itself - LIBERALS. Let's change the culture of every culture that opposes the civil liberty of whole groups of its citizens. Such liberty has created the greatest civilization ever known, but until liberalism and democracy is accepted throughout the world our mission is only half over.

[IranianDemocrat]

40. EXACTLY!!!

.

[geek tragedy]

44. I hate to say this, but some liberals act towards liberty as Republicans

do towards money:

I got mine, screw everyone else.

I think relativism turns progressives into the handmaidens of foreign despots quicker than you can say "Henry Kissinger."

[gottaB]

48. I'm a relativist and I deplore tyranny in all of its forms

I have considered the argument that the promotion of universal human rights turns progressives into the handmaidens of Western imperialism, and I find it inadequate. I reckon that what passes for ethnocentrism is either a conflation of disparate phenomena or a multifaceted quality of disposition grounded in the comprehension of one's place in the world and manifested in its assertion. Same goes for relativism. The essential conflict is not between the one and many. That is a diversion.

[IranianDemocrat]

41. The United States and Iran really aren't that different!!!

US and Iran have a whole lot in common. I feel at home in either country.

Both ther Iranian Leader and the US Leader take orders from God.

Both countries limit free speech when it is against national security.

Both make people disapper if they suspect ties with the enemy or if there is no law on the books to charge the guy.

Both fingerprint each others citizens upon arrival.

Both have more executions than most countries.

Both have a open policy of Torturing Prisoners.

Both have Police who beat peole.

Both are against Gay marriage.

Both cheat on elections and the big business decides who wins.

And now...they both execute the mentally insane!

I am sure you can add a lot more.

[ekhunter]

43. execution by stoning, come on iran. if you can develop nuclear

weapons, you can at least figure out a more human way for a death sentence. how about lethal injection.

[daleo]

47. Split the difference

Both the U.S. and Iran could start throwing poison filled needles at people in their next executions. That would couple the "humane" practice of poisoning by needle, with the good old biblical community closeness of a stoning. A win-win for capital punishment advocates everywhere.

[sweetheart]

45. One day to save an iraqi civilian from being blown to bits by US arms

It is pathetic the patriarchy in iran, and the barbarity. That said,
the relative barbarity, next to the mass extermination of civilians
overseen by the US forces in iraq, this pales to insignificance.

Every single life saved is justice done, and amnesty international
is noble indeed. Too bad they've got no influence with the yankee
murder machine in iraq.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[evolvenow]

53. This is horrific and is it PSY_OP prep for demonizing Iran, as the next

Iraq?

So sad.

[oblivious]

54. Tuesday's over. Waiting to hear from 'Democratic'.

Was this propaganda or do I owe her and AI an apology?

Was the woman stoned or not?

edit: spelling

[daleo]

56. I checked the Amnesty site

There has been no update yet.

[proudbluestater]

57. Think!!!! Isn't our sudden concern with Iran suspicious to all?

Don't you remember the run up to the Iraq war? Saddam gassing the Kurds (we've now killed many more Iraqis than were gassed, by the way), he was an evil dictator, blah, blah, blah. Prior to our decison to invade the country, was he evil? Were there weekly reports on bad things happening in that country? No. We were hands off, until we decided we needed to advance "our" neocon's agenda.

Now, think back. When, if ever, have you heard about atocities in Iran? Me? Never in my life. Not once. Until this past month. There have now been, at last count, five articles here, all by the same poster, all about Iran. Wow. Have they just suddenly become a bad country? Or were they always that way, even while Cheney was doing business there? They've always been that way. But suddenly a light is shined upon the country by the US.

The Iraqi elections will signal we are free to move on, ready to invade another country. Next up? Iran! Then on to Syria. It's not a big secret anymore, at least not on DU. To the rest of the American public who has not become familiarized with PNAC, yes, they'll be in for a big surprise.

[daleo]

59. Still no update on this. n/t

[quaoar]

60. Update from Amnesty

Welcome to www.amnesty.org.uk. This page was last updated on 22nd December 2004

Iran: Woman to be buried up to chest and stoned to death
An Iranian woman facing execution by stoning for adultery is believed to still be alive, even though the sentence was reportedly due to have been carried out on Tuesday 21 December. Amnesty International members are writing urgent appeals to the Iranian authorities, calling for the execution to be stopped.

[Tinoire]

61. Well I fully support helping her but I will NOT support the propaganda

being levelled at DU or the propagandists who have yet to show their face in a thread about the atrocities, the war crimes being committed by the good ole US of A in Iraq.

The manouverings are unmistakable. We already went through this before the war against Iraq with a bunch of people who had cute little names like "LovingLiberal, LibertyforAll, Democracylover", etc,,.

All this titter about ONE woman that the right-wing is using to pump up the volume on their war drums and not an effing PEEP about the tens of thousands being slaughtered right next door.

God help that poor woman but curses to anyone using this story to push the neo-Cons' agenda.

[daleo]

63. Glad you caught that

I must have missed the "believed to be still alive" part, after noting the "to be" clause still in the headline. My mistake. There is still nothing definitive about her case, though.

[gottaB]

64. In limbo between hanging and stoning

Iranian Adulteress Faces Noose or Stoning--Official

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian official said on Saturday he was waiting for orders on whether to stone or hang a woman convicted of adultery, the latest in a chain of death sentences passed against women for "fornication."

The official from Iran's conservative judiciary said Hajieh Esmailvand's prison sentence, that began in January 2000, would end in less than a month -- a jail term in the northern city of Jolfa that was always intended as a precursor to execution.

"Her (death) sentence is approved by the Supreme Court, but there are no orders to carry out the sentence. We do not yet know if it is by stoning or hanging," he told Reuters.