Stoning in Iran, the witch burning of modern age!

By Sohaila Sharifi

When Maryam Ayoobi a 32-year old Iranian woman was told of the high court’s final decision on her sentence, she fainted. The magistrate court had sentenced her to death by stoning for adultery. Mrs Ayoobi had appealed against the decision and waited with hope for the outcome. On the beginning of March 2001, The high court approved the previous sentence adding that her body should be burned after her death. This means the most extreme form of punishment in the Islamic law.

Stoning is a form of Islamic punishment for adultery, which had been legislated by the Iranian government in the penal code of the country and ever since the establishment of the Islamic republic of Iran, many women and some men had been executed in such fashion. The Penal code referring to civil laws and social behaviours comes in five books and is called ‘Hodoud’ in which the sexual acts outside marriage are defined as serious crime and punishable by law. According to article 84, married women and men who commit adultery will be stoned to death, while unmarried couples involved in unlawful sexual acts might get away by milder punishments such as flogging. The procedures of stoning and even the size of the stones have been clearly codified by the law.

Fortunately the International Committee against stoning took up her case and a campaign was lunched world-wide to save her. So far her sentence has not been carried out and she is still in jail.

There are however, others who are less lucky and the thunderstruck of their fate would not give them any chance to cry out for help. So was an un-named woman who according to the daily newspaper Entekhab, was stoned to death early morning on Monday 21^st May 2001by the security forces and the guards of the infamous Evin prison, where she had spent the past eight years of her life. The news reported by Entekhab and some of Iranian radio stations did not even reveal her identity. She had been imprisoned many years for playing in pornographic films and having unlawful sexual relationships, crimes serious enough to make one deserve such an agonising death.

Even though men and women are equally guilty in front of law when they commit adultery, the law is unquestionably harsher on women. The fraction of men being stoned to death in the recent years is much lower. Mrs Ayoobi’s lover is to be executed possibly by gun shot and the 24-year-old allegedly lover of Shahla (another woman sentenced to death) is to be hanged in public. Even the way stoning is performed gives men more (not many but more anyway) chances to escape. The victim is to be buried in a ditch as stated in the law and stoned to death. Women must be buried up to their necks, while the ditch for men is up to their waist. If a man or woman manages to pull her-himself up of the ditch and run away he/she must be pardoned. Logically speaking the chances a woman who is buried all the way to her neck to be able to pull herself up are really rare.

“In Iran stoning someone to death is not a crime choosing the wrong stone is” read a banner hanged by the International Campaign for the Defence of Women’s Rights in Iran, in the Trafalgar Square for the International Women’s Day demonstration. There is a legal base for this statement. According to article 104 of the penal code stones used in stoning must be of proper size that is “not so large that the offender would die by receiving one or two hits, nor too small to be defined as pebbles”

Although there are some Muslims who do not approve of this punishment, stoning has always been associated with Islam and has been carried out in the Islamist societies throughout the history. Those who are against stoning argue that there are no clear instructions in the Qoran (the holly book) about stoning one to death. They believe that the book has been interpreted inaccurately and stoning has never been mentioned in it. The majority of Muslim Ulema’s however, appear to have found bases for stoning both in the Qoran and Hadith (Sayings and stories about prophet Mohammed’s behaviours told by his close followers.). The following narration could be found in many versions of the Hadith books and is an example used frequently by those supporting stoning.

“ Narrated Jabir: A man from the tribe of Aslam came to the prophet and confessed that he had committed an illegal sexual intercourse. The prophet turned away from him, until the man bore witness against himself four times. Then the prophet said, ‘are you mad?’ the man said ‘no’. The prophet asked ‘are you married?’ the man replied ‘yes’. The prophet ordered Muslims to stone him to death. He was stoned to death in Musalla. When the stones troubled him he fled, but he was cough and stoned till he died. The prophet spoke well of him and offered his funeral prayers.” (Hadith, volume 8, book 82, number 810)

They might disagree on the forms of punishment, but it is widely accepted among Muslims that fornication is a major crime and deserves sever punishment. Sexual acts in the Muslim thinking are not private matters of individuals; they are measure of honour for the whole society. A married man or woman having sexual intercourse outside marriage, do not only commit a crime against one or two individuals (their husband or wife) but they will transgress the honour of their society as a whole and therefore they must be punished in public and in a very painful way. Taqteel is the word used in the Quran for painful executions. At the time of the prophet Mohammed Rajem, (stoning) had been such a method and it seems that Muslim leaders had followed the tradition for 1500 years.

There have been some attempts to put an end to stoning in the countries it is administered. A very recent organisation as such is the International Committee against stoning, which is a network of many individual, groups and human right bodies world-wide. According to Mina Ahadi the co-ordinator of this committee, stoning is not a simple cultural practice carried out among certain nationalities, it is an open crime against humanity and must not be tolerated by the world. Ms Ahadi an Iranian woman activist living in exile, believes that those administering stoning and making laws about it are the real criminals and must be put on trail for it.

The organisation has taken the issue to European commission on Human rights and has demanded official action against Iranian government.

On the 17 April 2001 the EU tabled a resolution on the situation of human rights in Iran at the 57^th session of commission of human rights. It is stated in this resolution that “ The commission deplores the continued executions in the apparent absence of respect for internationally recognised safeguards in particular public and especially cruel executions and urges that the capital punishment will not be imposed for crimes other than the most serious and will not be pronounced in disregard of the obligations it has assumed under the international convenant on civil and political rights.”

In the last two years the number of public stoning in Iran has reduced or as some newspapers stated have become rare. Perhaps a lesson had been learnt when in 1997 residents of Bookan rioted against the police forces trying to stone a woman called Zolaikha Kadkhda in public. She was rescued by the angry crowd and was sent to hospital. The authorities had difficulty in calming the situation down again. Masoma Sadeqiyan another woman sentenced to death in Marivan was pardoned as the government received thousands of protest letters from all over the world. The sentence of Maryam Ayoobi had been delayed due to an international outcry and the very recent case of stoning have been carried out in the backyard of a prison by only the security forces and prison guards.

The cases of stoning might be only few a year, they might be very rare indeed, but that dose not justify the fact that in some parts of the world stoning has been codified and perfectly acceptable by law. If a single case of witch burning is acceptable in the modern world, maybe one can digest rare numbers of stoning too. But lets face it, one case of stoning is too many and it is our responsibility to stop it.