Report: Iran court upholds stoning death sentence

struggle4progress

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Sat Nov-29-08 10:30 PM
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Report: Iran court upholds stoning death sentence

Source: AP

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's Supreme Court upheld a stoning death sentence for a woman convicted of adultery in the southern city of Shiraz, an independent newspaper reported Saturday.

The daily Etemad Melli, or National Confidence, reported that the court also upheld another death sentence, this one by hanging, against the woman, who was also convicted of killing her husband with the help of a male accomplice.

The man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was convicted of being an accomplice in the murder. He was also sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery, but was not given the death penalty because he was married.

Judiciary officials were not immediately available for comment. It was not known when the slaying took place or when the two were convicted ...

Iran confirms stoning sentence against adulteress: report

TEHRAN (AFP) — ... The woman identified as Afsaneh R., was also given a second death sentence for murdering her husband with the help of a man identified only as Reza, who had an affair with her, Etemad Melli newspaper reported ...

An Iranian rights group said in July that eight women and one man had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery over the past few years and urged the Islamic republic to halt their executions.

In August, the judiciary said it had scrapped the punishment in Iran's new Islamic penal code, whose outlines have been adopted by the parliament but its details are yet to be debated by MPs before final approval and coming into effect.

The judiciary also said stoning sentences against several convicts had been suspended and commuted to either lashes or jail terms but it was not known if any of the nine convicts were among those whose lives have been spared ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j-IpCaRfRp0nHSoU9kDPWAkYxqeQ

The Stop Stoning Forever Campaign: A Report
Rochelle Terman
Women Living Under Muslim Laws
November, 2007

... there is no mention of stoning in the Quran ...

Of all the Muslim-majority countries, stoning as a form of punishment is only provided in the criminal codes of Iran, United Arab Emirates, and the Sudan. In Iran, stoning as a punishment did not exist until 1983, when the contemporary Islamic Penal Code was ratified ... In some cases, if a victim can escape from the ditch during the stoning, they will be freed. However, because women are buried up to their breasts and men only at their waists, women will have a smaller chance of escaping than men ...

... activists involved in the Campaign focus on the act of stoning as a symbol for the overall structure of the Iranian Penal Code, Family Law, and overall society that harms women ... stoning is the worst product of discrimination and violence against women in Iran, and by targeting the issue of stoning, activists can then highlight the discriminatory laws in which it represents.

Out of the thirteen cases of stoning that the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign has appealed, eleven of those defendants are women. According to Campaign activists, women are at a far greater risk of stoning because they are at far greater risk of being found guilty of adultery. The Iranian Penal Code, particularly Family Law, privileges men with regards to age of consent, divorce, polygamy, temporary marriages, child custody, and sexual rights. For instance, a married woman has no right to divorce, a privilege which is reserved for the husband. Furthermore, women have no custody rights of their children after infancy, so many women who can obtain a divorce by proving her husband is either abusive or an addict, chose not to do so because of the loss of their children. A man can marry up to four wives simultaneously, and may establish a sexual relationship with any other single woman through a temporary marriage (sigheh) without the requirements of marriage registration, ceremony, or obligation to any possible child that may result. In addition, a woman is legally obliged to submit to her husband’s sexual demands and do her best to satisfy him sexually (tamkin.) Hence if a man is sexually unsatisfied or in an unhappy relationship, he has many avenues open to him to dissolve the marriage and/or satisfy his sexual needs in a different marriage. At the same time, a woman has far fewer legal options open to her, often driven to adultery by these discriminatory laws limiting her sexual rights and status ...

<pdf available via: http://www.meydaan.com/english/default.aspx >