Women facing imminent stoning, death by hanging in Iran

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=893

Tehran, Nov. 30 - The Supreme Court of Iran has upheld a stoning sentence for a woman accused of adultery. Hajieh Esmailvand has been serving prison time in the town of Jolfa (Northwestern Iran) since Jan. 2000 for having an affair with a 17-year-old boy.

Originally she had been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and ‘death by hanging’; however the Supreme Court subsequently changed the verdict from ‘death by hanging’ to ‘death by stoning’.

One informed source told Iran Focus that the Supreme Court has ordered that the remainder of Hajieh’s prison sentence be annulled so that the stoning sentence can be carried out ‘before 21 December 2004’.

On Nov. 20 a female member of Iran’s parliament (Majlis) was quoted by state-run newspapers as saying, “if 10 prostitutes were executed, there would be no more prostitutes on the streets”.

:(

and a lot of theirs on the way to it.

Good lawd!!!

Oh, sorry. Never mind.

,...but, SA isn't in the PNAC,...so, who cares :shrug:

the sooner the better!!!

All of a sudden this is NEWS. Wonder why?

so that they don't stone each other!

Can't wait for this to make he scene at the 2008 Repuke convention.

And they have three more executions scheduled for January.

:shrug:

I'm against capital punishment no matter what country it takes place in.

here and "justice" there.

OK, I know sarcasm doesn't work well online. Sickening. And what is happening in Texas is revolting too. It's like a freaking production line down there.

killed (assuming they were rightly convicted) somebody.

... for the 1982 murders of two police officers. New evidence was brought forward which proved that Herrera's brother committed the murders. By Texas law, which states that any new evidence must be presented within 30 days of the conviction, this new revelation was irrelevant. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Texas ruling, arguing that Herrera's claim of 'actual innocence' was in itself not a constitutional claim for which judicial relief could be granted. Thus, though the court agreed he was innocent, Leonel was executed on May 12, 1993."

http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/fiveRs3.html


Remember this case? In Texas, if there was a murder, somebody's gotta die for it, regardless of whether the state can find the real guilty party or not. And the Supremes have become increasingly vicious in the last thirty years.

he's on death row too if you read the article. I admit, I'm surprised too.

In the US, Justice still means 'Just Us' all too often.

for anything other than some form of homicide (or treason). We don't stone people for having sex, for crying out loud.

we'll be stoning people for any number of reasons.

are working on it and getting contributions from none other than Diebold execs.

I know we lost the election, but did I miss something?

One of my best friends is from Tehran, and lives in California now. She can't go back to Iran for fear of life in prison. You know why? She was born there, and is now also a U.S. citizen and doesn't have her original paperwork. That alone would land her in prison.
Please don't diminish the plight of the Iranians. Her father still spends about half the year in and around Tehran, and from all accounts, the Iranian people want nothing more than for the mullahs to be overthrown.
The U.S. isn't perfect, but to suggest what you did shows an appalling lack of perspective and gratitude for the freedoms we do have.
Let's focus our complaints on real problems.

already they are trying to minimize the "hate crime" aspect of the matthew shepherd killing.

The religious right will get us to stoning, just you wait.

Like numerous death row convicts have been shown to be through DNA testing in the past few years. That alone places doubt in my mind over ANY death sentence.

Try telling her about the (BIG) difference in justice. I am sure she will be glad to have you explain it to her.

Don

When was the last time a rich person was put to death in this country? Yeah, I can't think of one either. What? The rich don't kill people? We have an equally bad justice system in this country - it's just "bad" in a different way.

Set in Texas. Ever hear of Candace Mossler, Cullen Davis or Ash Robinson? All millionaires who probably got away with murder.

The US legal system is obviously in shambles when you can find 13 people slated for death who are innocent of the crimes they were convicted of. So what makes you so sure that women deserves to be killed? Are you psychic?

Don

Don't do the crime if you don't like the punishment. Don't like the laws? Move. Or work to change the laws.

Just because we think adultery shouldn't = death penalty doesn't make us correct or better or more "just".

Other nations can't understand why we don't use the death penalty for adultery...or drunk driving...or drugs.

And then no other industrialized "first world" nation has the death penalty except the USA; and those other nations think it's horrendous and unjust that the US still has the death penalty for anything.

A perfect example of the shallow absurdity that is moral relativism.

And "compassion" has nothing to do with this issue. What WE think is "just" or "unjust"; "moral" versus "immoral" is based on OUR culture. NOT EVERYONE thinks of justice or morality in the same way we do and the total failure to understand this is the #1 problem with Americans.

Iranians view a lot of our culture as being evil, immoral and unjust. It's THEIR SOCIETY and THEIR culture and it's up to THEM to decide what in THEIR view is moral or just, and to make changes or not.

This "America the Superior" is crap.

By your reasoning, we had no right to condemn the Holocaust--that was just Europe's "culture."

By your reasoning, we have no right to condemn the Jim Crow South or Apartheid South Africa because that was just "their culture."

Morality is more than a mere incident of culture.

By your way of thinking, there is no such thing as morality or decency--only cultural norms. It is the road to barbarism and Abu Ghraib.

I DON'T AGREE with killing ANYONE for ANYTHING.

I DON'T AGREE with stoning ANYONE for ANYTHING.

But that's just MY OPINION and I DO NOT have the right to shove MY OPINION down other nations' throats.

It's NOT MY CULTURE, it is NOT MY NATION or MY NATION'S LAWS, and it is NOT MY BUSINESS to interfere with other nations' laws & cultures UNTIL AND UNLESS THEY ASK ME TO.

No other industrialized nation agrees with CP, yet America's law says it's legal and executes the mentally retarded and children; does that mean it would be ok for those nations to interfere with America's laws? I say NO.

GENOCIDE such as the Holocaust etc is NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with Iran's law on adultery; no similarity at all. Nice spin attempt, though.

YOU want to shove YOUR version of "justice" and "morality" down everyone's throats. Rightwingnuts think just the same way.

I don't.

Japan. Although for the record, the maximum number of executions in one year rarely exceeds 3, and is sometimes 0. Capital punishment in Japan is reserved for particularly heinous crimes (mass/serial murder, etc.)

And I guess by now you could call China an industrialized nation (at least they have most of ours), and the Chinese government has no qualms about using capital punishment for minor offenses like this incident in Iran.

Even Turkey has abolished the death penalty.

-Most executions occur in a handful of countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Gee aren't we in good company!

China isn't considered an industrialized nation, or it wasn't on the list last time I looked; they may be by now.

No other western industrialized nation aside from America has the death penalty; I didn't know about Japan still having it and most the articles I've read all simply say "no other industrialized nation", so my mistake & thanks for pointing Japan out, I'll go research that.

"The only other OECD country which permits the death penalty is Japan, and executions there are infrequent."

http://www.newsbatch.com/deathpenalty.htm

-Of the countries that still permit the death penalty, only five use lethal injection, the most common method of execution in the United States. Seventy-three of those countries use firing squads, 58 hang condemned criminals, six stone them, and three still use beheading (Congo, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates).

Gee...bush's good pals sure figure prominently, especially the those that use beheading and stoning.

-From January 1977 through April 2001, 710 executions were carried out in this country: 545 by lethal injection, 149 by electrocution, 11 by gas chamber, three by hanging, and two by firing squad.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/deathworld1.html

-China, Iran, the United States, and Viet Nam account for 84% of the executions recorded by Amnesty International in 2003.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/index.do

-Eight countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime - China, Congo (Democratic Republic), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen. China, Pakistan and Yemen have raised the minimum age to 18 in law, and Iran is in the process of doing so.

The country which has carried out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders is the USA

http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/document.do?id=3E4211D4A5E4D9A080256E67005A4CAE

have to leave it at that.

Not all people define or priortize human rights as you do.

Show me exactly where I said I don't believe human rights applies to all people.

Either you're just being very dense or you're using that well-known rightwingnut technique of "you don't agree with me so you must be for the terrorists" crap.

And we both know which it is; you use that rightwingnut technique very often on this board. Why don't you leave such bullshit to the rightwingnuts.

rights violation.

number of other methods.

So you don't care about killing people; you just object to the METHOD used in killing other people.

Old joke you remind me of:

Would you screw me for $1 million?

Sure.

Would you screw me for $10?

NO! How dare you! What kind of person do you think I am!

We already determined what kind of person you are; now we're just haggling over price.

fanatical religious zealots who would stone a girl (but not the man) for having sex. Maybe my daughter can get into the University of Tehran, I hear they have a top notch Woman Studies program!

and "evil" than the men who tortured and murdered Mathew Shepard for being a homosexual?

minded fools are now serving life sentences. Big Difference

"Don't like the laws? Move"

Oh ok. So tough guy, what's someone to do if you're a gender that isn't ALLOWED to move?

"Just because we think adultery shouldn't = death penalty doesn't make us correct or better or more "just". "

Bull shit. "Just because we don't think Jew = death penalty doesn't make us correct". Or does your BS only extend to people who are female? I'm glad you weren't making the calls in WW2.

"Other nations can't understand why we don't use the death penalty for adultery...or drunk driving...or drugs."

My heart bleeds for them.

"And then no other industrialized "first world" nation has the death penalty except the USA; and those other nations think it's horrendous and unjust that the US still has the death penalty for anything"

And they would be right.

The Iranians should be allowed to have their OWN opinions regarding THEIR laws and THEIR cultural practises.

Or are you in favor of bush-style liberation of Iran; bomb the fuck out of them, like bush has done to the Afghans and Iraqis?

YOU don't like Iran's laws, don't move there.

"tough guy"??? As a woman, that's the first time I've been called a "tough guy".

It should apply to all, not just men. Of course, I believe that's the way it should be with all laws (aside from gender rights laws). I don't know what tomorrow's case is.

Sorry, but there are no such things as gender rights, black rights, white rights, farmer’s rights, etc. There are only individual rights.

Nevertheless, capital punishment is both racist and sexist and those are but a couple of reasons that I am opposed to it.

but I see the difference between stoning a married woman for playing hide the banana with a seventeen year old young man than executing David Westerfield for raping and killing a four year old girl and then dumping her in the mountains of southern California...

troll shield: i'm a radical feminist and i hate all forms of religious intolerance towards women's rights. this is a barbaric practice.

that said- has anyone noticed that each passing day we get new stories about the 'horrors' of life in iran? we're being primed for war against them, just like we were in the spin up to the war on iraq. horror! barbarism! the iranians are worse than hitler! (i expect that one soon)

there are problems with every society, our own is no exception. most here would agree that the way to stop these kinds of practices is to engage the society peacefully, and use economic and social pressures to convince other nations to join the circle of modern civilization. we here in the us, by our actions in iraq and elsewhere, have given up our right to criticize any nation for what we perceive as wrong.

this story, and most others about iran coming out in our press today, are for an entirely different purpose: to make people ready for another war for oil.

right "mind set" for the upcoming Iranian invasion.

<sarcasm off>

I hate any religion-based justice system because of the inherent injustice of any system based upon mythologies. And I agree 1000% with your assessment of the situation; we are being set up and the American public will, once again, be blinded from the truth by its seemingly unquenchable desire for blood and violence and death. What a world...what a world...

thanks for saving me the trouble.

Husband was watching CNN Headline News last night and he said they spent an inordinate amount of time on Iran and Iran's weapons, etc.

God, it feels like 2002 all over again.

seems to me I have heard more news about the war in iraq, more news that was critical of bush and also more news in favor of war.

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

would you say something like that?

Explain your comment.

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

Which nation has the highest number of its own citizens in jail?

(subject question repeated for the freepers who don't know what "incerceration rate" means)

Which nation makes prison rape jokes such as "don't drop your soap"?

Which nation is the only one of the industrialzed nations that still has the death penalty?

Which nation executes the mentally retarded and children?

Gee I wonder which nation that would be...

but please realise that

1) the overwhelming majority of Iranians do not approve of these barbaric practices (or of the Islamic Republic, for that matter).

2) the use of these stories as a pretext to the next war.

"we here in the us, by our actions in iraq and elsewhere, have given up our right to criticize any nation for what we perceive as wrong."

So, if a student at my university commits a crime, I lose the right to criticize anybody who does something wrong, because I am a member of the same school as a criminal? Or if somebody of the same ethnicity as me commits a crime? Or, as you suggest, someone of the same nationality.

How can you justify such sweeping guilt by association, by shared characteristics? I don't know about you, but I've never held individual citizens in other nations to blame for the actions of their respective governments.

Fuck that. I take responsibility for what I've done, not for who I am. When I see wrong anywhere in the world, perpetrated either by the United States or other countries, I maintain the right to speak against it.



Incidentally, I am getting sick of hearing "Well, America did it too..." every time I say something remotely critical of another country. The fact that America has commited a particular action does not make it okay or acceptable.

what i was trying to say is that we've crossed a line as a nation, with our recent actions in iraq. Fallujah, Abu G, shooting a wounded man in the head in a mosque, etc.- these actions, no matter how we 'meant' them, have destroyed our moral and ethical credibility in the eyes of most of the world, and in particular in the ME. hypocrisy is the charge that is made against us, and we have to accept that this is the price we pay for the way in which we've conducted this war.

and like it or not, especially after this 'election,' we are *all* responsible. the rest of the world may understand that most folks here don't endorse the war or what's happening, but when they contrast our behaviors with those of say, folks in the Ukraine, well...i hope you can see my point.

and please review my post #18 to understand how it is that i feel about iranian judges and stoning. of course i don't approve, and in different times, i'd be the first to criticize it.

Is being boiled to death better? Ask bush's good pals in Uzbekistan.

Rape? Torture? Murder? Ask bush's good pals in that "great democracy" of Turkey.

Or Saudi Arabia...China...Egypt...Jordan...Kuwait...

There is no stoning in any of those nations except for Saudi Arabia.

So being boiled to death or beheaded or executed via hanging or electrocution or lethal injection or rape, torture & murder is ok coz it's not stoning?

Good grief.

When the Shiites take power after the coming elections and turn Iraq from a secular, fairly liberal nation into an Islamic theocracy, the US will be the ones responsible for all the deaths and injustice that will take place against the Iraqi women. Amazing, isn't it, that our invasion of Iraq will almost certainly give the Iraqi women LESS freedom than they had under Saddam?

in the run-up to the invasion next year. We will get nothing but long lines of everything bad about Iran until the righteous are slavering at the mouth for more "towel head" blood. Well, just get ready for it...

Next they'll be yanking babies out of incubators. Gotta go with what's worked before. Dehumanize then invade.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1254956.htm

Dr Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute is one of the thinkers at the forefront of the push to "do something" about Iraq.

<snip>

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Well, I argued about three years ago that Iran should be at the top of the list, not because of atomic bombs, but because they are the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world, and after all, what we are up to in the Middle East is responding to an attack on the United States.

MARK COLVIN: A worse sponsor of terrorism that Saudi Arabia?

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Much. I mean, Saudi Arabia's never done anything of the magnitude that Iran has done. Iran created Hezbollah, which is arguably the world's most dangerous terrorist organisation. They created Islamic jihad, they run most of, if not all of Hamas and so forth. They're the big sugar daddy of international terrorism.

Let the games begin.....

like focusing on our problems FIRST rather than trying to manufacture consent for another neocon invasion??????

What kind of propaganda website is this anyway? While stoning a woman is indeed a horrible thing, it's interesting to do a run through on the news stories on that site...everything there is written in a way that gives us reason to feel morally superior and judgemental toward the country. The "us" vs "them" mentality is beginning.

Certainly I'm not the only one here who remembered all the gross stories that came out about Iraq prior to that war...especially the stories about Saddam's sons. They did all that torture for all those years and yet we didn't hear much about it until roughly 6-8 months prior to invading.

...bear with me a moment....

Women who are oppressed willingly are complicit in the way they are treated. Women who bring male children into the world and allow them to be taught to disrespect women are part of the problem....

I feel bad for the women but hell....until the women in those countries link arms to stand up for one another...this will continue.

perhaps if thousands of Iranian women took to the streets in protest there would be change.

"Give me liberty or give me death"....perhaps a man said it originally but I think the sentiment is the same for women.

Oh, yeah. The get stoned to death.

Kinda makes complicity the good option.

I hate to say this but constantly obeying hasn't gotten them any further ahead...they are still living in the middle ages.

Oh, who knows, you may be right. It just sounds to me easier said than done.

So, can I get you a ticket to Iran so you can "stand up and risk it"?

but guess what ...I am not Iranian so why would they take an American woman shoving my values upon them seriously? If Iranian women want freedom from the chador and the oppresive society they live in they must stand up to it.

All young Iranians have voted & demonstrated for a more liberal society. The mullahs & the military remain strong, though. And the prospect of a possible invasion is putting the social issues on the back burner.

Here's a link to an Iranian Feminist Newsletter: www.badjens.com/

I realize it takes time but if even 50% of Iranian women vowed to change the world they lived in by changing views in their households...it would make a huge difference.

Thanks for the link...

1. Don't do the crime.

2. Work to change your nation's laws.

3. Move.

Iran's laws aren't new; these women were brought up understanding their place in their society & their nation's laws.

There are nations in the world just as shocked at many of our laws, especially our executing the mentally retarded & children, as we are by their laws.

Picketing Starbuck's because they discriminate against nursing mothers...

But some Iranian women are doing it.

Of course, the Christian Reconstructionists want to bring back stoning for certain crimes. So we may yet get a chance to prove our quality.

Iranian family court system. The country is not as far away from ridding themselves of the Mullahcracy as some think.

They tricky line to walk is between abandoning the reformers and tainting their effort through intervention.

Iran will unite against us & all hope of reform will be postponed indefinitely.

I would imagine that invasion is on the "intervention" side of the line. ;)

Fortunately, it won't be logistically possible to invade Iran during the next four years.

Interesting. Does Texas know this?

PENNSYLVANIA.

And last time I looked, that isn't in PA and it isn't a red state.

eom.

On edit- I don't see our government as being a lot different from Iran. Punishments that don't fit crimes. Punishment as a way of doing God's judgement. That's how it looks. Why would adultery be a crime? Isn't that between two people? But they seem to feel the need to carry out a sentence for some supreme being, or something.

Thery stone & behead their women. But that's ok coz they're bush's good pals.

I kid. :)

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

and kill people in nicer ways :silly:

women are beaten and killed by EX boyfriends and husbands. It's the screwed up "He-Man" machismo form of justice. After all, that woman was his property. :(

it seems women really are persecuted by their government

and death? Sure, but the women are JUST AS DEAD after being beaten by their husbands (and sometimes shot) as those who are stoned by the Saudi and Iranian Authorities.

I'm sure that Amnesty International & other organizations offer ways you can help.

It just seems that we're being told this right now to excuse an invasion. And this story has not turned up on a less biased site.

A man accused by only 14 women of attacking them in their workplace.

And Oprah gladhanded him 'cause she's friends with Maria.

Not that I condone this sort of thing, but to me the increased attention on the "atrocities" of Iran is just the first stage in the psy-ops of our govt, getting us ready to foot the bill (in both lives and money) for their next conquest.

Yuck.

Just because we happen to ignore that particular one of the 10 Commandments doesn't mean other societies have to.

And yet the American talibornagains say you can't cherry-pick the bible; it must be followed literally. Hard to believe so many citizens of a supposedly first world nation can be so incredibly...dumb? Ignorant? Stupid? Hypocritical assholes?

As in "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone"?

and will continue to be used as a pretext as our own version of the Iranian ayatollahs try to turn the USA into the United Christian States of America.

As we speak out against misogyny here in these United States, let us be sure to do so wherever it occurs.

And do not leave out religion in your curses; it is the bane of free people everywhere.

Stoned and hanged for sex. In the 21st century!

Every time I read one of these horror stories about warped justice in Iran, it appears to comes from iranfocus. Everything on their site is anti-Iran. It appears to be just a propaganda site.

When I try to google these stories, I get nothing from AP, AFP, Reuters, BBC, etc. Seems a bit strange, but maybe my googling skills leave something to be desired.

outlets into the country. Additionally, the mullahs have been closing down local newspapers who oppose them. I know nothing about 'IranFocus' but the sentence of this woman to death is consistent with other verified stories of women being sentenced to death for adultery, or in some cases gang rape.

I'm obviously suspicious of the news this kind of site generates and can't find it reported elsewhere.

Iranmania, for example seems to have no compunction about reporting rough justice in Iran. Some examples:

Iranian boy,16, sentenced to death for murder
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?ArchiveNews=Yes&NewsCode=27055&NewsKind=CurrentAffairs

Iranian child serial killers to be hanged in public
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?ArchiveNews=Yes&NewsCode=27107&NewsKind=CurrentAffairs

Iranian man hanged publicly for rape, murder
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?ArchiveNews=Yes&NewsCode=27454&NewsKind=CurrentAffairs

Yet in the following article, they maintain that stoning has been suspended. I really don't think what may be propaganda from iranfocus belongs in latest breaking news unless it has been corroborated by other more legitimate sources.

Iran revokes woman's stoning
In the case of adultery, the judge can decide on death by stoning, although no such case has been officially reported for more than a year and the sentence has apparently been suspended since the end of 2002 under pressure from the West, particularly European states.

Still, murder, armed robbery, rape, apostasy and serious drug trafficking are all punishable by death in Iran.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?ArchiveNews=Yes&NewsCode=26257&NewsKind=CurrentAffairs

I've been on the net for about 15 years and have never seen the media put the spotlight on Iran one time. Never.

Do any of you find it surprising that the site is only available in English and French? Not any Middle Eastern tongue?

Am I the only one who sees red flags?

People, Bush is ITCHING to invade Iran, immediately. His CABAL does not care that we have no money nor troops. They are busy "creating their own reality." The neocons now rule the world, or the inmates have taken over the asylum.

When "we" "brought democracy to Afghanistan" all this government could talk about was how women could now vote! Go to school! Well, folks, women in many countries have been deprived and beaten for a very long time and very few people have given it any press. Just so you know, I'm a feminist, female, and I abhor abuse against ANYONE, but I'm just saying, why NOW?

Did you hear about the poor women of Afghanistan BEFORE we invaded? The human rights abuses? Certainly not. They were to be ignored, as usual, until such time as we needed an excuse to invade their country. (Ok, we were looking for Osama Bin Forgotten, too.)

While we are sponsoring propaganda against Iran, we are also accused of MANY of our own human rights abuses at various places. The Red Cross even found we are now torturing people in Iraq. I hate this administration. And I will NOT stand for another senseless invasion. Not in MY name as an America.

Mark my words, this is US propaganda, aimed at building a case for invading Iran. It's fucking deja vu all over again. While Iran is signing agreements with the EU to make no nukes, Bush is blustering about that not being good enough. Wake up! He's going to lead us into another war! Read all the articles and see how many are PRO Iran. Very few.

By the way, you can contact them at the site. I told them to cut out the propaganda, the American people and the WORLD will not stand for another war.