General Chat

for those who expressed concern ...

"Last week, an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was saved by global protests from being stoned to death.

But she may still be hanged -- and, meanwhile, execution by stoning continues. Right now fifteen more people are on death row awaiting stoning in which victims are buried up to their necks in the ground and then large rocks are thrown at their heads.

The partial reprieve of Sakineh, triggered by the call from her children for international pressure to save her life, has shown that if enough of us come together and voice our horror, we may be able to save her life, and stop stoning once and for all. Sign the urgent petition now and send it on to everyone you know -- let's end this cruel slaughter NOW!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_stoning/?vl

Sakineh was convicted of adultery, like all the other 12 women and one of the men awaiting stoning. But her children and lawyer say she is innocent and that she did not get a fair trial -- they state her confession was forced from her and, speaking only Azerbaijani, she did not understand what was being asked of her in court.

Despite Iran's signing of a UN convention that requires the death penalty only be used for the "most serious crimes" and despite the Iranian Parliament passing a law banning stoning last year, stoning for adultery continues. "

Thanks Rose, have signed the petition and sent the link to many friends.

Lizx

Goodness this is terrible and flamin barbaric. Will sign and post the link elsewhere too:)

Thankyou very much Whirley and Liz :))

xx

I know this isn't 'nice' to read...but I think it must be understood just how much this is a torture as well as execution.. ... I mentioned it on a thread the other day which was subsequently deleted by the OP for other reasons, so I'm repeating here.

"While men are sometimes stoned for adultery, the deep, sexist divisions that drive the contemporary 'interpretation' of the Quran in Iran are in evidence. Men are buried waist deep and if they manage to wriggle free from the hole before dying they are free to go. Women however are buried up to their armpits - ostensibly for fear their breasts may be exposed during the mutilation that is inevitable
while the sentence is being meted out. There is no way they can wriggle free.

"The Iranian criminal code - Article 104 to be precise - provides that "the stones should not be so large that a person dies after being hit with two of them, not so small as to be defined as pebbles" but must cause severe injury. In short the point is to torture the person to death over a prolonged period of time. "

We are definitely not talking about an humane 'clean kill' here.

Thanks for reading if you have... a lot of people will say 'a petition won't change things' but it is something we can all spare a few minutes for, it is registering to the country involved that this is not acceptable to the outside world.

Maybe if enough people say it enough times things will change...sometimes that happens :))


xx

Done.
Hazelx

Rose will sign and forward to my family and
friends.
Hope that it will make a difference.

Emmax

Thankyou Emma and Hazel :))
xx

Will do, Rose. xxxxxx

n

signed Rose....

nudge

I have signed up to Avaaz

Thankyou :))

xx

I watched a vidio (not very clear) of 2 women being stoned to death, went on for ages, must add men were doing this. Made me feel anger, frustration, sick, helpless, and disgust for rest of day, all in the name of religion.
Carol

The lawyer who publicised this case to the west has fled his home and been given asylum in Norway, his wife and family still remain in Iran........

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8912269.stm

Brave man, I hope his family will be allowed to join him, and that Iran is not allowed to forget that the world will be watching.

This is a dreadful tale of injustice.
Throw me into the same situation and I will admit to ANYTHING YOU WANT to accuse me of!
Poor people.
A petition, I'm off to sign it.
Deanna X

and it goes on...from the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11190864

she is now facing an additional sentence, 99 lashes ( because of a picture published in a British newspaper alleged to be her, but possibly not )

"on false charges of spreading corruption and indecency by disseminating this picture of a woman presumed to be her without hijab".

words fail me on this

Dreadful, Rose.

Gwynne

I am so disgusted by this.
I am also disgusted by the idea that my opinion is an interference into someone else's Religion and that I 'don't understand.' D**n right I don't understand. I would be very worried about anyone who DID understand.
Deanna X