In commemoration of 11 July, International Day against Stoning, we call on people worldwide to demand an end to the barbaric practice of stoning to death.

11 July has been chosen by the International Committee against Stoning to mark the day that 31 year old mother of two, Maryam Ayoubi, was stoned to death in 2001 under Khatami’s ‘reformist’ presidency. Though she had fainted out of sheer fear, she was nonetheless carried out on a stretcher and stones were thrown at her body until she was dead.

Stoning is a medieval act of barbarity that the Islamic regime in Iran and other Islamic gangs and states use to mete out punishment against women who have sex outside of marriage and in some cases also against men and homosexuals. It is a tool to frighten people into submission.

Even so, there is ample opposition and resistance to stoning in countries where women are stoned to death. In Iran, in particular, where the regime has stoned to death hundreds of people, there is an extensive social movement against stoning. It has become impossible for the regime to stone people in public for a very long time now and the practice of stoning has effectively been suspended, particularly after the campaign to defend Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

Millions of people all over the world came to the fore to defend Sakineh, demand an end to stoning and condemn the regime. Whilst Sakineh is still in prison (as is her lawyer Houtan Kian), the Islamic regime of Iran has been forced to suspend her stoning sentence and even speaks of cancelling her execution as well as her possible release. This is all thanks to the worldwide movement against stoning. This movement has saved many a life in the past few decades.

On 11 July, the International Committee against Stoning calls on everyone to remember the victims of stoning and those languishing under stoning sentences and to demand an unequivocal end to the barbaric practice of stoning in Iran and everywhere.

Mina Ahadi
International Committee against Stoning
Tel: +49 (0) 1775692413
minaahadi@aol.com
stopstonningnow.com/wpress/

Maryam Namazie
Spokesperson
One Law for All
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk

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11 Comments

  1. Only sick sociopaths with minds drugged on religious zealotry could engage in anything as abhorrent, twisted and evil as stoning. I have been unfortunate enough to have been exposed to watching the atrocity on a news documentary that didn’t give any advanced warning. All I can say is that those so-called ‘people’ in the crowd are among the very few I have ever considered worthy of the punishment in the saying ‘locked away and throwing away the key.’ Having to even be on the same planet as those demented twisters is ample proof of the complete and utter absence of any sort of loving and just god. No one that cared even one iota about another would allow them proximity enough to even be aware of the concept, let alone close enough to witness their sick actions. Seeing that video was the very instance that I understood and accepted the argument of anti-theism rather than just atheism.

  2. I think Gregory in Seattle@ #1 makes a good point. I haven’t made a cross-cultural and pan-historical survey but it seems to me that when it comes to inhumane and highly creative ways to inflict pain, suffering and death it is the so call ‘civilized’ nations, cultures, and religions that are most brutal.

  3. There are some posts were I get caught unaware and do a double take. This is one of them. Stoning? It’s like something in a poorly written movie where the author is being lazy in explaining why one group is evil.

    This is unreal and beyond barbaric. It’s unconscionably cruel and inhumane – especially since it looks like a terror tool used to keep ultra-conservative muslim sexual mores in place.

    1. Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the case of a judicial executioner. Slower than other forms of execution, stoning is a form of execution by torture.
      Islamic Sharia Law is based on the Quran, the hadith, and the biography of Mohammed. Based on these hadiths, in some Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, married adulterers will get capital punishment, while not-married adulterers will be flogged 100 times. The Qur’an forbids all sexual intercourse outside the marital bond as sinful, but makes no distinction between them. The punishment is flogging 100 times for those found guilty.
      Stoning (rajm) as a punishment for adultery is not mentioned in the Quran and the use of such barbaric methods of execution cannot be condoned and pressure has to be now applied to stop this abomination and cruel practice.

  4. You are wrong to call stoning “barbaric,” as most barbarians were decent enough to provide a reasonably clean death with a blade.

    Stoning is beyond the pale, even for barbarians.

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