Iran Ends Stoning of
Women for AdulteryIran has ended its
practice of imposing the harsh sentence of stoning
as a form of capital punishment for women. The head of
the judiciary instructed judges to halt implementing the
sentence, according to BBC News. Iran’s decision
to end the severe sentence could be a result of the
international outcry against a recent stoning sentence
of a Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, for having sex out of
wedlock. The Nigerian government promised
in October to stop the Islamic courts from carrying out
sentences of death by stoning.
This decision to
stop stoning women adulterers came soon after Cindy
Costa, the Senior Advisor of the United States Mission
to the United Nations, stated that the number of
stonings in Iran were on the rise. According to Radio
Free Europe, in May 2001 a woman was stoned to death
in Tehran’s Evin prison for acting in pornographic films
and having sexual relations outside of
marriage.
Since the 1997 election of the
President Mohammad Khatami, Iranian women have gained
greater freedoms, including the repeal of a ban on
unmarried women studying abroad. Iran’s Guardian
Council, a hard-line conservative force in Iran, approved
a bill in December broadening women’s divorce rights—a
right that has been severely limited since the 1979
Islamic Revolution. The signing of this bill by both the
Parliament and the Guardian Council and the decision to
end the practice of stoning women adulterers are among
several steps being taken to broaden the rights of women
in Iran.
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Media Resources: BBC News 12/27/02; USUN press
release 11/8/02 11/08/2002; Radio Free Europe
07/02/2001; Feminist Daily News Wire |
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