Extending equality

There are few practices more barbaric than stoning.

Stoning involves burying a man up to his chest (or the neck, if the condemned happens to be a woman) and pelting him with rocks until he dies. It is a primitive, ancient and backward ritual left over from the time of the Old Testament and, one would think, written out of modern times.

Not surprisingly, however, the practice still occurs in Iran.

While it is not common, one woman narrowly escaped that fate thanks to a surge of support from foreign media. Her name is Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, and in May 2006, she was brought to court for having “illicit relationships” with two men.

She served five years in prison and endured 99 lashes. Later, she was convicted of adultery by another court and was sentenced to death by stoning.

While she might still face the death sentence, she has her son to thank for the fact that the sentence will not carried out with rocks.

Sajad Ghaderzade reached out to Western media outlets in an attempt to save his mother’s life. At the age of 17, he watched his mother whipped 99 times and now feels compelled to do everything he can to save her from enduring more harm.

By appealing to media outlets across the world, he was able to stop the stoning — for now.

In a statement, the judicial head in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province said, “Although the verdict is definitive and applicable, it has been halted due to humanitarian reservations and on the order of the judiciary chief and will not be carried out for the moment ... (but if deemed expedient,) the verdict will be carried out regardless of Western media propaganda.”

So what can we, as privileged Americans, learn from this story? The moral seems to be that even from hundreds of thousands of miles away, we can do something to end a barbaric practice.

In countries all over the Middle East, women do not have a voice — they are uneducated and subjected to a society that elevates men above them — and they need help.

Take, for example, “honor killings,” another euphemism for murder. Every year, 5,000 women are slaughtered by their own kin for bringing dishonor onto the family. These take place principally in the Middle East and South Asia but have since spread to other countries such as Italy and the United States.

Canada is leading the way in turning the tide against this barbaric ritual. Honor killings will be deemed a unique criminal charge — a legitimate effort to prevent citizens from engaging in such a heinous act.

The Canadian government is also looking to engage in a public relations effort to educate its citizens about gender-based violence.  

Other countries would be best advised to adopt such legislation.

By identifying any killing of a woman as what it is — murder — we can began moving in the direction of true equality.


E-mail: danfleis@indiana.edu