Mother of 2 faces death by stoning

Human rights groups and concerned individuals worldwide are demanding an end to stoning executions in Iran – and right now are pressuring the head of the Islamic nation's judiciary to lift the death sentence against a 34-year-old mother of two young children.

Malak Ghorbany was sentenced to death June 28 by a court in the Iranian city of Urmia after being found guilty of committing "adultery."

Under Iran's strict Sharia law, women sentenced to execution by stoning have their hands bound behind their back. They are wrapped from head to toe in sheets before being seated in a pit. The ditch is filled up to their breasts with dirt, and the soil is packed tightly before people assemble to execute the woman by pitching rocks at her head and upper body.

Article 104 of the Iranian Penal Code states that the stones used for execution should "not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes, nor should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones."

Ironically, the court sentenced the woman's brother Abu Bakr Ghorbany and husband Mohammad Daneshfar to only six years in jail for killing her lover. According to Sharia law, murder carries a lesser penalty than "crimes against chastity."

Stonings decreased after international pressure on former reformist President Mohammad Khatami in the late '90s. And Ayatollah Shahroudi, the current head of Iran's judiciary, issued a ruling to judges ordering a moratorium on execution by stoning in December 2002. But the brutal killings have continued and the practice was never abolished from the penal code of the Islamic Republic. In May, two other women, Abbas Hajizadeh and Mahboubeh Mohammadi, were executed for committing adultery, with more than 100 members of the Revolutionary Guards and Bassij Forces participating in the stoning.

Adding to the voices urging Shahroudi to lift the stoning order, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week unanimously passed a resolution urging the U.S. State Department to condemn the impending execution by stoning of two Iranian women, Ghorbany and Ashraf Kolhari.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, an Iranian-American, introduced the resolution and brought it to a vote August 15.

Lily Mazahery, president of the Legal Rights Institute in Washington, D.C., had the lead role in drafting the San Francisco resolution, telling WND: "Malak is receiving the penalty of death for having committed 'adultery,' which, under the Sharia legal system includes any type of intimate relationship between a girl/woman and a man to whom she is not permanently or temporarily married. Such a relationship does not necessarily mean a sexual relationship. Further, charges of adultery are routinely issued to women/girls who have been raped, and they are sentenced to death."

The other woman referenced in the resolution, Kolhari, was sentenced to 15 years in Tehran's Evin prison for allegedly participating in the murder of her husband. Her lawyer, Shadi Sadr, said: "After she was arrested, they obtained a forced 'confession' from her, stating that she had been involved in an extramarital affair with the man who had murdered her husband." This led to a sentence of stoning for adultery as a married woman. The 37-year-old mother had previously filed for divorce, but it was rejected by the court because she has four children.

An Islamic women's organization, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, announced Aug. 11 that Shahroudi had responded to pleas for Kolhari's life. The group's website stated, "We are glad to inform you that we have heard that Ayatollah Shahroudi has acted to stop the execution of Ashraf, the 37-year-old mother of four, who was sentenced to stoning for having had extramarital sex. However, her fate is not yet clear and we urge you to continue writing to the Iranian authorities on her behalf."

Sadr reportedly encouraged continuous public outcry to ensure Kolahri's safety. She said, "I am asking you to please continue your efforts and keep your voices loud until we make sure that [Kolhari] is safe."

The Islamic regime has officially stayed her execution until a new trial is conducted. Mazahery holds little hope for re-examination of the case, and she intends to put intense international pressure on Shahroudi. She told WND the Islamic regime tries to silence the objections of the international human rights lawyers and organizations by initially caving in and granting a stay of execution until a new trial is set.

"The Islamic regime has been known to say one thing and do exactly the opposite," Mazahery said. "It is still quite possible that the Islamic regime will schedule a rush sham trial and re-issue the same sentence before we have a chance to take the appropriate legal actions. It is also possible that even with a new trial, Ghorbany would still receive the same sentence or be sentenced to death by public hanging instead."

Ironically, Iran is a member of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or ICCPR. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has indicated that treating adultery and fornication as criminal offenses does not comply with international human rights standards. Article 7 of the ICCPR reads, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." And Article 14 guarantees the right "to have legal assistance assigned to (the accused), in any case where the interests of justice so require."

"In 99 percent of these cases," Mazahery said, "the accused women have received no legal representation, and because, under the Sharia legal system their testimony is at best worth only half the value of the testimony of men, their so-called 'trials' last only a few minutes – after which they are immediately sentenced."

"There are no scheduled dates for such killings in Iran," Mazahery told WND. "A prisoner can be executed at any time with little or no notice at all. Needless to say, that makes matters that much more complicated and urgent in these types of cases."

Her petition to save Ghorbany's life is rapidly circulating online with more than 9,847 signatures.

"Let us all express our outrage to prevent these barbaric executions," Mazahery said. "Let us – all of us – take steps to ensure that no innocent woman will ever feel a rope around her neck or any stones launched at her helpless body by the hands of her own peers."

Mazahery translated a message written in Farsi from Ghorbany, which said: "I am not guilty of a crime. I have only committed an act that is the natural right of every human."

A petition to save Malak Ghorbany's life and contact information for Ayatollah Shahroudi are available here.

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"If you are a Muslim, you MUST...watch the video to increase your knowledge of Islam.
Increasing one's knowledge about Islam is farz (compulsory)!
Also, you must force yourself to like stoning, because Mohammed ordered it.
If you are afraid to watch the video or have watched it and are disgusted by it, you will likely be punished in Hell for Kufr.
So watch the video and do NOT be disgusted!"
Source...Apostates of Islam

AAARRRRK! Peaceful Muslims and multiculturalism ( hand hitting forehead), how stupid of me, now I get it.

43 posted on 08/19/2006 1:46:13 PM PDT by CremeSaver (Prayers for our Israeli friends. They're going to need them, as will we.)

I think there's more to it than that--Islam seems to tap into a vein of vicious, dark sexuality--a kind of nationalized obsessive perversion. Like making sadism and pedophilia into a cult and a government--all designed to put the most dreadful of humans in touch with some inner pornographic monster. I guess any human can become a demon under the right circumstances..

It is just so ghastly--I am appalled at our society being willing to tolerate women in their slave rags walking our streets.

I just can't understand why the DemocRATS support these monsters and why they are working so hard to bring this kind of thing to America.

45 posted on 08/19/2006 1:46:44 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Want to "feel safer?" Elect DemocRATS and then stick your head in the sand.- The DNC)

Highlighting the discrepancy between the way women are treated would hurt their cause at home indeed. So they give islam a free pass to mutilate and kill.
Very true.

The suffering that the woman endures during this barbaric execution is just excruciating. There was a thread here on FR that kind of explained what the woman goes through. The first hit from a rock, the woman yells uncontrollably. During the stoning, parts of the woman's face becomes disfigured and falls off until she's literally nothing more than a bloody pulp. For this to be happening is just inexcusable, and again the crickets are chirping from the lefties and feminists.

"What's happening to these women is a tragedy but what does San Frqancisco have to do with anything???"

What's left of the normal people here in California were kind of hoping San Fran would succeed from the Union and become there own little Chavez inspired country. We could invade, turn the city to stone and start over.

I don't know are they so browbeaten and afraid that they accept this meekly. Obviously they do. How do women from these countries communicate with one another, are they allowed to have friends? Perhaps they are so afraid of speaking out against this that they live with this misery. I just don't know.

50 posted on 08/19/2006 1:52:31 PM PDT by CremeSaver (Prayers for our Israeli friends. They're going to need them, as will we.)

Where are the ACLU, NOW, DNC, Jesse, AL, and Hillary.

Scratch Hillary. She stoned Bill plenty when they were housed together.

51 posted on 08/19/2006 1:52:51 PM PDT by Cobra64 (All we get are lame ideas from Republicans and lame criticism from dems about those lame ideas.)

"I just can't understand why the DemocRATS support these monsters and why they are working so hard to bring this kind of thing to America."

All leftism is of and from Satan. Islam is of and from Satan. They are not merely natural allies, they are two heads of the same monster.

This can't happen. It's all a myth. W said that Islam is the Religion of Peace.

53 posted on 08/19/2006 1:55:00 PM PDT by Cobra64 (All we get are lame ideas from Republicans and lame criticism from dems about those lame ideas.)

54 posted on 08/19/2006 1:55:02 PM PDT by CremeSaver (Prayers for our Israeli friends. They're going to need them, as will we.)

The people that sentence a woman to this fate are truly evil and debased. However, the man or woman that picks up the stones and throws them are beyond evil. I do not know how to classify them except as a plague on humanity.

55 posted on 08/19/2006 1:56:17 PM PDT by cpdiii (Socialism is popular with the ruling class. It gives legitimacy to tyranny and despotism.)

yup, nothing like being a woman of a peaceful "faith"... geez...

..."In 99 percent of these cases," Mazahery said, "the accused women have received no legal representation, and because, under the Sharia legal system their testimony is at best worth only half the value of the testimony of men, their so-called 'trials' last only a few minutes – after which they are immediately sentenced."...

56 posted on 08/19/2006 1:59:28 PM PDT by callthemlikeyouseethem (GWB: 12 Aug 06: "...I ask for your patience, cooperation, and vigilance in the coming days.")

I missed the condemnation of this by CAIR. Shouldn't they be saying this is not from Islam?

Oh that's right, they are to busy whining about Islamophobia and getting guided tours behind the scenes of airport security.

Religion of Peace my...

Many women are complicit and complaisant--sadism compliments masochism. I even read an essay by an Imam (I'll look for it--if someone knows about it, I'd appreciate a lead) who rather wittily wrote of the wisdom of Islam bringing the two neuroses (sadistic male and masochistic female) into loving bondage.--! If you will notice, there are women in that photo of the terrified woman, probably high on the power trip of being the abuser, for once, instead of the abused.

These people are scared to death of women. Why else would they react like this and have such laws?

These people are scared to death of women.

These people are scared, period. The one deep rooted commonality with all forms of totalitarianism is cowardice.

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