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Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

You’ve likely seen news stories of late about a particular case of a woman in Iran sentenced, as so many are, to be stoned to death for alleged adultery. In today’s technological age, an international campaign of outrage was waged via the web, facebook, and other online media sites. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is a 43-year-old widow convicted of adultery, and was scheduled to be publicly put to death by stoning. She has already received 99 lashes in the presence of her teenage son, and the law mandates “the stones should not be so large that the person dies upon being hit by one or two of them; neither should they be so small they could not be defined as stones,” so it is important to the judiciary that a “proper” amount of pain and suffering be inflicted before the final, grisly death…in public…

This morning, the case is under study and due to international pressure, may be put off or changed (on July 8 the stoning death sentence was halted, yet the outcome is unclear–it may be postponed, or she may be put to death by other means, or her sentence may be altered with a death penalty taken off the table) . Today, at the last minute, new reports are suggesting he also had a hand in the death of her husband (though the courts and attorneys said before she was only and exclusively being tried for adutlery). The new facts from today seem to imply that she was  convicted of murder, and sentenced to 10 years in jail, but her children did not want to press charges so that sentence was dropped. Interesting sway of the scales of justice.

Murder=10 years

Sex outside of marriage=unconscionable pain, suffering, and protracted brutal death

Read further coverage here and here and find a way to channel your outrage (and if you’re not outraged–we need to talk)

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is a good place to start.