IRAN

Afghanistan ( spouse had to throw first stone)

Iran ... and now in France.

The Times of London says Europe is starting to awaken from its multiculturalist fever dream, and becoming aware of the danger that’s grown in their midst: Stoned to death... why Europe is starting to lose its faith in Islam.

Speaking of "stoned to death," consider the penal          code of Iran (from MEI):

The penalty for adultery under Article 83 of the penal code, called the Law of Hodoud is flogging (100 lashes of the whip) for unmarried male and female offenders. Married offenders may be punished by stoning regardless of their gender, but the method laid down for a man involves his burial up to his waist, and for a woman up to her neck (article 102).

Article 104 of the Law of Hodoud provides that the stones should not be so large that a person dies after being hit with two of them, nor so small as to be defined as pebbles, but must cause severe injury. This makes it clear that the purpose of stoning is to inflict grievous pain on the victim, in a process leading to his or her slow death.

 

The Iranian regime "is in violation of a number of international standards in terms of the punishments it imposes, some of which can only be characterized as savage."
- UN Human Rights Commission´s Special Representative on Iran

The recent release of the smuggled photographs of a woman being hanged in Tehran, once again brought to the attention of the world the gloomy fate of women who are imprisoned in a big jail, the mullahs' Iran.

The photographs are of Fariba Tajiani Imamgholi, 30, who was hanged on March 19, along with four men, in East Tehran's Khaksefid district. Tajiani was among hundreds of impoverished residents of Khaksefid, arrested on February 22 during a brutal raid by the State Security Forces who razed their homes and subsitence to the ground.

Early morning on March 19, the State Security Forces returned for another show of force. This time, they brought along five former residents of Khaksefid to hang them before the eyes of their neighbors. Fariba was sobbing, begging the judge to forgive her, but to no avail. She was taken up the crane, and moments later, she was no more!

Fariba was one of the first victims of a new wave of terror prevailing Iran and the first woman who was hanged in public, to terrify a weary population growing more disenchanted every day with its oppressive rulers.

This case was also noted by the Special Representative of the UN Human Rights Commission on Iran, whose interim report to the General Assembly was released in early October.

Professor Maurice Danby Copithorne pointed out in his report that theIranian regime "is in violation of a number of international standards in terms of the punishments it imposes, some of which can only be characterized as savage."

Some highlights of his report are as follows:

- The number of executions continues to be high.

- Around two thirds of them were carried out in public... These include the public hanging of a woman on 19 March 2001 in Tehran, an extremely rare event in the Islamic Republic.

- ... It was reported that the state television has broadcast scenes of public hangings on two occasions since the beginning of 2001.

- There have been disturbing reports of resort to especially barbaric and unusual forms of execution, such as beheading and stoning. According to press reports, an Afghan man was publicly decapitated in Zabol in June 2001...

- Since January 2001, the Special Representative has received information concerning the stoning of two women and the sentencing to death by stoning of at least one other.

- ... the Special Representative has recently received reports of the execution of one minor and the sentencing to death of another one.

- The Special Representative continues to receive reports of torture in the legal system, particularly in pre-trial detention.

- There continue to be reports of amputations and public floggings.

- Iran is facing a major economic crisis. Inflation, unemployment and poverty are among the causes of the deteriorating social condition of most Iranians. The human rights cost of the crisis is very high.

- ... the majority of Iranians, in all walks of life, believe that at the beginning of the twenty-first century, they deserve better and more accountable governance and a society that has more respect for the inherent dignity of individuals.
Status of women

- The status of women, particularly their legal status, remains highly discriminatory.

- Patriarchal attitudes are very much in evidence in the form of domestic violence and the limited prospects for women to enter the labour force.

- A member of the Women's Participation Centre in Tehran was quoted recently as saying that women had become more frequently the victims of beatings, rape, abortions, financial and mental pressures, and verbal abuse from their husbands, brothers and even children.

- Another side of women's plight is what has become known as the "feminine face of poverty".

- Finally, there is the long outstanding benchmark issue of the minimum age of marriage, particularly that for girls, which is nine years.

- In February, a girl's shelter in Karaj, the Jasmine Centre, was closed down after an investigation had reportedly revealed that it had become involved in the trafficking of girls. The press focused on the high-level connections of the operators of the Centre. A judge of the Revolutionary Court was subsequently charged in the affair.

- The condition of women in the Islamic Republic has remained much the same for some years: steady improvements in some respects such as education but no change in the foundational, legalized discrimination faced by women almost across the board.

- Perhaps the most graphic recent portrayal of this situation is the Iranian film, "The Circle", with its strong overtones of the Islamic Republic as a prison for women.

- The Special Representative's conclusion is that despite the evident desire of the Iranian people to improve the legal status of women, the stalemate between the branches of government on the very limited measures that have so far been proposed must leave the Islamic Republic, as a country, in an extremely embarrassing position

New Start Becomes Death Sentence

In 1997, Nowrouzi moved with her family to Kish Island, Iran's tourist spot and free trade zone in the Persian Gulf located about 180 miles from Bandar Abbas. Her husband Jahangiri hoped his friend Behzad Moghaddam, who held the highest position within the security police in the island, could help him find a job. The family stayed at Moghaddam's house.

Shortly after their arrival, Moghaddam arranged for Nowrouzi's husband to carry some merchandise to Tehran. Many Iranians make a living by buying imported electronic goods and home appliances from the island's duty-free shops and selling them at higher prices on the mainland. According to trial testimony obtained by Women's eNews, Nowrouzi says that after her husband departed, Moghaddam attempted to rape her.

"When I went upstairs, I saw Moghaddam naked. He pulled me into the room and threw himself on top of me," she testified. "As the children heard noises and walked up the stairs, he gave up his intention." Nowrouzi says she could not sleep that night and, as a precaution, hid a knife under her pillow.

In her testimony, Nowrouzi says she wore a skirt and blouse, as well as a pair of pants underneath her skirt. She says she covered her hair with a headdress and also wrapped her veil around her waist, a common practice by traditional women to cover their legs.

She says the next day after finishing a shower, she again found a naked Moghaddam lying on the bed waiting for her. "I showed him the knife and told him if he attacked me, I would strike him," Nowrouzi said.

Nowrouzi says Moghaddam grabbed her, and in defense, she stabbed him in his chest, torso and face with the knife. According to the local coroner's office, Moghaddam sustained 34 stab wounds.

Nowrouzi fled the house and took her children to Tehran to join her husband. When Moghaddam didn't report to work, local police became concerned and went to his house the next morning, where they discovered his body. Nowrouzi was arrested in Tehran several days later.

When asked by the judge why she stayed in the house after Moghaddam's first rape attempt, Nowrouzi responded, "At 10 o'clock in the evening where would I go? I didn't know any place. My husband was absent. I didn't have any money."

Nowrouzi also admitted Moghaddam caught her stealing some of his jewelry to buy food for her children. She says Moghaddam told her he would report the theft unless she submitted to his advances. "When he attacked me, I first warned him that I would report him," Nowrouzi said. "He replied to me 'I am the head of police in Kish; nobody would believe you.'"

Torture, Confessions

During her three-year pretrial investigation, Nowrouzi made several contradictory confessions. She says that at first, investigators tried to convince her that her real motive in killing Moghaddam was stealing his money. "They beat me so much that two times I confessed against my husband so they would leave me alone," she testified at her trial in 2000.

Police also theorized that she and the victim had an affair. "They were beating me with cable wire from morning until noon and again at night," Nowrouzi said.

Under Iranian law, obtaining confessions from suspects and defendants under torture is illegal. But few defendants are ever able to prove they were tortured during detainment. For example, this year, Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi died while being interrogated. But a recent special commission that investigated the charges ruled that Kazemi accidentally hit her head while in custody.

Judge Mortazavi did not believe Nowrouzi's confessions were obtained under torture and rejected her self-defense argument. "This woman is presumptuous and opportunistic," he wrote in his verdict convicting her of murder