NEWS: Iranian Woman Sentenced to Death By Stoning

An Iranian woman only identified by her first name Soghra, has been sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery in the strict muslim nation. It is alleged that the woman schemed and aided her lover Ali Reza, to murder her husband. Soghra was sentenced to 15 years jail for her part in the murder while her lover Reza was sentenced to death. Death by stoning is the official and religious outcome for adultery in the nation. Iran has faced international criticism for the barbaric act where a woman is buried up to her waist and then pelted with stones, not large enough to kill straight away, Iranian officials maintain that they no longer execute women using this method and it is possible that the sentence will be commuted to a lashing. The Islamic code obliges judges to issue the death by stoning sentence for women who commit adultery.



How draconian. This is disgusting and I feel for the people who live under these laws especially women.

I do understand this woman did commit a crime by conspiring to murder her husband but a 15 year jail sentence is appropriate unlike a stoning sentence for having sex with hubby's best mate that comes straight out of ancient biblical times.

Related News Links:
www.alertnet.org
www.ncr-iran.org
observer.guardian.co.uk

[edit on 16-10-2005 by Mayet]

This is a completly unacceptable act. Clear breach of a persons human rights, I agree if someone has murdered another death by lethal injection is acceptable, but stoning?

People may strongly disagree with me, but Iran needs a change. It should either surrender to a willing democratic nation and let a more civilized system, dictate goverment, or we add that to a list of reasons it may be in our interest to Invade Iran. All in the interest of nations moving away from barbaric acts.

Vorta

[edit on 16-10-2005 by Vorta]

Double post...

[edit on 16-10-2005 by Vorta]

No I think religion once and for all must be proven and I mean proven to be correct or incorrect....

Without concrete proof no one will listen and even with concrete proof there is the fanatics that will continue to hold false hopes

Once religion is sorted out then the rest is then able to follow... enlightenment.... truth and the real world order

Originally posted by Vorta
People may strongly disagree with me, but Iran needs a change. It should either surrender to a willing democratic nation and let a more civilized system, dictate goverment, or we add that to a list of reasons it may be in our interest to Invade Iran. All in the interest of nations moving away from barbaric acts.

Okay, I'll be the first to strongly disagree. The execution by cruel and unusual method of one person (and it hasn't necessarily even come to that yet) is no reason for us to be gearing up, AGAIN, and going around invading countries at will. Trading the suffering of a potential few for the guaranteed suffering of hundreds of thousands, including innocent women and children, is just not a logical or humanitarian trade-off, no matter how you look at it.

Did you know that as late as 1998, the US was still executing people by gas chamber, one of the cruellest and most gruesome forms of legislated death known to man?

external image

www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk...
A typical witnesses view of gassing is as follows "At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop, the skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool".

A study of the execution records of 113 prisoners executed at San Quentin showed that the average time taken to kill them was 9.3 minutes.

Donald Eugene Harding Arizona - April 6th. 1992.
...Cameron Harper a reporter for KTVK-TV said, "I watched Harding go into violent spasms for 57 seconds. Then he began to convulse less frequently. His back muscles rippled. The spasms grew less violent. I timed them as ending six minutes and 37 seconds after they began. His head went down in little jerking motions. Obviously, the man was suffering. This was a violent death, make no mistake about it."; Harper went on, "It was an ugly event. We put animals to death more humanely. This was not a clean and simple death". Another Witness, Carla McClain, a reporter for the Tucson Citizen said, "Harding's death was extremely violent. He was in great pain. I heard him gasp and moan. I saw his body turn from red to purple."

I'm against the death penalty by whatever means, but let's not go invading other countries based on the fact that they do things we in the West do ourselves, just a little differently. Hypocrisy is an ugly trait.

Actually wecomeinpeace, I didnt know that. Thankyou for the link.

Yes I realise that this appears to be, a slow and at times violent death. Good it's being outed for the lethal injection. Seems odd to me that some would choose it, maybe they thought it was quick.

And on my statements of Iran, I think were already gearing up again. At least we will be if they don't start talks again. I was just trying to illustrate its another point that can be added to many. No doubt about it you cant invade a country based on there death penalty lol.

But still stoning to death seems alot more barbaric.

Vorta

Barbaric, absolutely barbaric.

This quote has me somewhat baffled too....

Judiciary officials say no woman has been executed by stoning for several years and that stoning sentences are routinely changed to other forms of execution, such as hanging, or lighter sentences.

Stoning in exchange for some other kind of execution? Not a lot to go for then is there? I do wonder what the lighter sentences entail?
Maybe facial disfigurement, or even worse, genital mutilation?

All this in the name of the Islamic code......................

OK, is this really barbaric? By our standard yes. However they aren't living in our society, they live in their own. They set their own laws. I see this as no different than Indonesia's drug laws. Harsh but they are theirs.

it should be pointed out that they might only go with public lashing.

it should also be pointed out that she got jail time for aiding the murder but she is to be stoned to death for the adultery. that makes perfect sense.


the antiquated way of doing things is the very reason these nations are where they are. If they were modernized in their thinking, and controlling all that oil, they would be the superpowers.

All one can hope is that they use damn big stones. If you were knocked out by the first blow you'd have it pretty easy after that...just never wake up. The alternative is a little unnerving to contemplate.

By intrepid
OK, is this really barbaric? By our standard yes. However they aren't living in our society, they live in their own. They set their own laws. I see this as no different than Indonesia's drug laws. Harsh but they are theirs.

By our standards, yes, it is barbaric. We cannot get away from that fact.
Other races have their own way of dealing with things which are just as barbaric to us.

The fact that they are barbaric to us, is something we cannot fully comprehend. Ask any Westerner, they will say the same. It is something which we cannot imagine doing in the name of any kind of God.

I do understand that they have their own way of dealing things, but it is still barbaric. If you lived in their country as a western immigrant ,and your wife committed the same crime, would you be the first in the queue with your bucket of stones? Nahh, it would just be the divorce courts, the same as me.

The previous post by myself was to submit my point of view.

Originally posted by Bikereddie
The previous post by myself was to submit my point of view.

A POV that everyone including myself share here. My post was in no way an attack, just pointing out that they have different ways. Would you think it OK if other nationalities came to your country and tried to change your laws to theirs? It's happened here:

www.ctv.ca...

Thankfully it was shot down. Why? Because this is OUR way of life.

Originally posted by intrepid
My post was in no way an attack,

Nor was it construed as one, but thanks for clearing that up

Barbaric and harsh penalties are almost always used to try and make sure the crime never happens again in soceity. In the UK if you speed you can get fined £1000 for not returning the confirmation form back within about 30 days and/or get banned from driving for a year if you were going fast enough. Harsh laws keep soceity going, so they'll tell you. Not exactly 'barbaric' i know, but definitely harsh. Perhaps the debate should be about, should she have been punished at all? was what she did actually wrong, if so, then they don't want everyone doing it. Was there any option for her to divorce her husband or was he a complete bastard? if so was it taken into account for the punishment?

Adultery in the Western World = divorce.
Adultery in the Iranian World = death.

Speeding in the Western World = cash fine
Speeding in the Iranian World = slap on the back for being able to make it go fast? I don't know the answer to that one.

The laws these nations have are barbaric to us in the Western World. There is no doubt about it. We can only comment and pass on remarks how bad it is etc, and we will always disagree with it.

If we were in their country, we would have to respect their laws just like they have to respect ours, but how many Iraqis, Iranians etc have committed adultery in our countries and are still alive to continue it? I would imagine a lot. There is no sense of any repercussions for them in our society, so they will continue with it, free of anyone stoning them or worse.

Maybe thats why they come to our societies? for a better way of life?

can't really argue with you on that, especially the speeding in Iran comment lol

I wanted to say a few things. As far as Iran goes, yes this is a horrible sentance. They need to rethink their entire moral and ethical code as it applies to woman in that country. Second, why are you people crying about how we put someone to death?? I would be willing to bet in a lot of these cases the way the death sentance is carried out is far less violent then the crimes they committed to be put there to begin with.

Stoning is a barbaric act you can find videos of them on the internet without much effort. They use stones that are not large enough to kill with only a few blows. The stones are thrown until the person dies or until he/she escapes out of the hole and crosses the circle. This is the reason woman are buried upto their shoulders and not their necks like men . This is to give her an seemingly equal (but nonetheless impossible) chance to escape recognizing her lesser physical strength.

"Start of Rant"

Why should we tell another nation what to do. Its their customs, and their laws, so I say leave it be.
Thats the problem with todays soiciety, everybody wants people to act and do what they want them to do.
I understand "stoning" is wrong, but is it truely barbaric to them? No, it is primarily the US that says it is barbaric, to their standards it is.
What I am tring to say is let other nations have their own way of living and stop trying to force people to conform to our standards. Its wrong. No wonder why everyone hates the west. Because our laws are more open and humanitarian.
What would you feel if some other nation like Russia, or Germany took over the US and tryed to make us conform to their laws, you would not like it.
That is excatly what the US is doing over in the middle east.

"End of Rant"

Was anyone suggesting invading Iran to stop stonings in this thread? I might have missed that