Iranian woman facing stoning for allegedly committing adultery: 'I'm afraid of dying' (CNN)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Iranian woman facing stoning: 'I'm afraid of dying'

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/07/30/iran.stoning/index.html?hpt=T2

By the CNN Wire Staff
July 30, 2010 9:51 p.m. EDT



A boy signs a petition calling for an end to stoning during a protest in London on July, 24, 2010, to demand the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

London, England (CNN) -- In a room thousands of miles from her prison cell in northeastern Iran, the fear that has gripped Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for years was clear and almost palpable.

"The day I was given the stoning sentence, it was as if I fell into a deep hole and I lost consciousness," said a human rights advocate, reading aloud from a letter attributed to Ashtiani. "Many nights, before sleeping, I think to myself how can anybody be prepared to throw stones at me; to aim at my face and hands? Why?"

Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was set to be stoned to death for allegedly committing adultery in Iran. Members of the International Committee Against Executions, who have launched a public campaign for her freedom, held a news conference Friday to share a letter they said was from Ashtiani, who is being held in a Tabriz prison, and court documents from her case.

"I thank all of you from Tabriz prison," the letter said. Referring to advocate Mina Ahadi, Ashtiani wrote, "Mrs. Ahadi, tell everyone that I'm afraid of dying. Help me stay alive and hug my children."

[Oregone]

1. Is this the same one who was found guilty of murdering her husband too?

Just curious. Not that this would make a death sentence appropriate in general. On the other hand, its not my country or place to decide really.

[K8-EEE]

5. No, she is being murdered for allegedly having sex

How effin' SICK is that???

[Oregone]

6. Double sick

Sick that they have a death penalty and sick that sex is a crime.

[cynatnite]

14. They execute gays, too. n/t

[Oregone]

18. Thats awful. Its easier to just kick them out of the military and deny rights

Its not even a pragmatic approach to managing the gay population

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Stoning anyone is barbaric, plain and simple.

I hope we can stop this.

Recommended.

[Bobbieo]

4. I cannot think of a more barbaric or humiliating way to die.

Sick - sick - sick!

[Oregone]

7. The death penalty in general is barbaric

This just pushes the bounds

[Bobbieo]

8. Just offhand!!! - How many men have been stoned to death in that

barbaric nation or is that a fate saved for women? Where is that again - Iran!

[Oregone]

9. How many men in the US have been put to death barbaricly?

A lot. A lot of them were black too. And undoubtedly, some of those were innocent.

There is more than one barbaric nation here. Its tough to have any moral highground, no matter how extreme this is, when you are busy filling jails and killing your own citizens.

[K8-EEE]

11. Wait it gets better...the men are only buried up to their waist

IF YOU CAN GET OUT....they give you a pass, but because the women's breasts have to be covered they NEVER GET OUT....

[cynatnite]

15. Unless you're gay...

Iran executes gays.

[Journeyman]

10. Speaking of pushing bounds, consider the case of Robert Pierce. . .

or better yet, let Evan S. Connell explain:


Robert Pierce, awaiting execution at San Quentin prison,
contrived to slash his throat with a shard of glass,
precipitating a frantic quarrel among the authorities:
some insisted that he be executed before he bled to death
while others thought he should be taken to the hospital.
Presently, with gouts of blood bubbling from his neck,
he was carried into the gas chamber. Witnesses screamed,
vomited and several fainted. The decision had been reached,
officials later explained, because at the time of death
the prisoner probably would still be alive and therefore
conscious not only of his crime but of the retributions
justly demanded by the Sovereign State of California.

Evan S. Connell, Points for a Compass Rose, 1973



Pierce was a contemporary of Caryl Chessman. They shared the Row together, but not a cell, and not even near each other, as Pierce was too dangerous to be kept with the other condemned prisoners; they kept him penned up in a special section dubbed the "Iron Curtain." Pierce was executed in a "double" deed in 1956. The example is old but still relevant.

Additional info can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/pqsfpo

[Oregone]

13. Holy shit. We need to invade and liberate those people from barbarism

[SlipperySlope]

22. LOL

I knew someone would say it, but I laughed anyway.

[napi21]

3. I feel bad for her and I wish they wouldn't do that, but the rest of the

world looks at the US death penalty the same way. Stoning is a bit more primitive but the end result is the same. The prisoner is dead. I don't think we in the US have any right to slam stoning as lng as WE condone electrocution, or gassing!

[JI7]

12. but she is getting is for Adultery , not murder

[cynatnite]

16. Of course, we put people to death for having sex all the time...

:sarcasm:

:puke:

[seabeyond]

20. the u.s. may not be able to. but i can. i have opposed. so i get to speak out. nt

[PavePusher]

26. I didn't know we executed people for having sex...

Because you were conflating the reasons for executions, right?

[scheming daemons]

17. Religion is the root of all evil

....

[Oregone]

19. Religion is a tool the elite use to manipulate the poor masses

Its often a symptom of a sick society

[era veteran]

21. Religion, like Racism is the tool that keeps them on top

and us on the bottom. Fundys anywhere are a suppressed bunch that like to suppress others.

[scheming daemons]

23. Sadly, religion is a symptom of EVERY society

...

[Forkboy]

24. I'm curious if the people who say we should stay in Afghanistan think we should invade Iran.

Many are adopting the stance that we should stay in Afghanistan to save the women. Do Iranian women not count as much as Afghani women?

[treestar]

25. If we invaded them for the way they treat women and gays

Would that be acceptable?

[Forkboy]

27. Not really, because we won't solve it that way.

Just as we're not going to solve it in Afghanistan. There's a lot of things that suck in this world...we can't fix them all, and certainly not through military means. It creates more problems than it solves.

And let me ask you, do you think we should invade Iran?

[treestar]

28. No.

But whenever I hear about these women being stoned or beheaded or gays being executed, some part of me does want to go after them. I read a paperback once by a Saudi woman who claimed a family drowned their own daughter in the family pool without legal penalty, for something like talking to a boy. But I don't know if that is true for sure or not. But if so, such people need to be - attacked, or something.

[Forkboy]

29. Treestar, I wish we could stop this stuff tonight.

But we can't. There's no good option here. Attacking them creates more. Ignoring them lets them thrive. There has to be a middle ground.

All I know is that what we're doing in Afghanistan isn't going to work. It's only getting more of us killed, maimed, and mentally destroyed, and each time we kill a civilian we've created another enemy. There's a line in a song I like that goes, "Every time you bomb our lands it might be time for you to think, 'What will their kids be like?'. If your parents got killed by another country, how are you going to feel towards that country?

We aren't winning.

We're not helping.

We simply aren't. We can't save everyone. I hate it, and I'm sure you hate it as well. But military action will not solve this problem.