generalspeaking

Stoning Adulterers

State laws that have their founding on the basis of religious strictures tend to be capriciously nasty in their deliberation and execution. Which is understandable, since religion has its basis in emotions, calling to the spiritual in humankind, and insisting that worshippers obey the limits placed upon them by the tenets and the precepts and the laws set down to ensure that they remain faithful to a god that demands homage, respect and obedience.

Society has moved, for the most part, beyond the often-barbaric commandments that have been imposed upon the worshippers of ancient gods. Religions that were formulated as a brilliant instruction by which populations could be manipulated to obey basic commandments leading to structured societies demanding that people be law-abiding and refrain from murder and mayhem, were brutal in the punishment meted out to offenders.

Hacking off the hands of a thief ensured he would not repeat his transgression. Stoning adulterers ensured that the family structure would remain intact. Executing murderers instructed the population that infractions of vital laws would not be permitted. Property was to be respected and if theft occurred the penalty was harsh. Women were as much property in early cultures as were livestock.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran - as in many other theist-driven countries of the world where the administering agents representing government are fundamentalists believing implicitly in the sacred content of the religion's book of divine guidance and instruction received directly from Allah and to be interpreted precisely as written - punishment is to be direct and brutally final.

However, even a country like Iran - governed by fiercely fanatic clerics and their equally-fanatic political and military agents are occasionally sensitive to the opinion of the outside world, particularly when certain acts commonly pursued as a form of punishment are held to be beyond the pale of the most basic of acceptable human rights - can be forced to take a step back and reconsider.

Even though it is well enough recognized that Iran tortures and murders political dissenters, and claims the Koran instructs the state to enact the death penalty on apostates, as a 'cure' for homosexuality, those who defame the Prophet, women who are held to be loose, people who worship religions other than Islam, its abhorrent state-sanctioned abuse of its people constantly surprises outsiders.

Punishments that are so amazingly cruel that are afflicted upon people by religious fundamentalists who act as judge and executioner cause consternation and huge anger in the world of Western sensibilities. An international outcry greeted the news that a 43-year-old mother of two, forbidden from divorcing an abusive husband, was accused of an "illicit relationship", and condemned to death by stoning.

The public outcry directed toward a country accustomed to ignoring the condemnations issued it as a result of its human rights abuses, and which has raised the umbrage of the international community for its intransigence with respect to unauthorized nuclear programs, allied with its abusively bellicose threats against neighbours, has hit a pinched nerve in Tehran.

A statement was issued by Iran's London Embassy in response to British Foreign Secretary William Hague's description of the impending execution as "disgusting and appalling" to the rest of the world, to the effect that the woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani) "will not be executed by stoning". Ms. Ashtiani had already received punishment for her purported crime; 99 lashes.

"It's a tactical retreat. ...They never expected this kind of pressure, so they want to buy time", commented a spokesman for the International Committee Against Stoning and Execution, Ahmad Fatemi. So only time will tell whether this woman will be executed by other means rather than stoning, for she has, it would appear, still not been sufficiently punished.

Barbarism seems to sit very well on the white-robed shoulders of the Iranian Ayatollahs.

Should anyone wish to attempt to help save this woman's life, they are encouraged to sign the on-line petition that can be accessed at www.freesakineh.org.

Labels: Middle East, Sexism, Societal Failures, Traditions

posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 09, 2010