(Abridged From "Nameh Mardom", Central Organ
of the Tudeh Party of Iran No. 753, 7th December
2006)
December 10 has been named as The
International Day of Human Rights. On this day of 1948, Universal Declaration of
Human Rights was adopted and this day became a day to honor the Human Rights.
Today, this charter is part of the International Law and from its point of
view, all humankind from any gender, race, wherever they are, would benefit from equal
rights.
On this day, once again, the progressive and humanitarian forces all over the world state
their solidarity with the universality of Human Rights, and move towards
implementing its articles, especially in those countries where the citizens’ rights are
violated. The leaders of Iran’s regime call the Human Rights a western stratagem
where their interest is involved; however, strictly as propaganda, they cry wolf for
other countries and condemn the violation of the rights of their citizens. This is happening
at a time when the tormented and tyrannized people of our country don’t benefit from any
citizenship rights whatsoever, and their human rights are being violated in every
way.
On the occasion of the Human Rights Day, December 10, we’ll briefly touch on an
inhumane punishment called “stoning’ and its execution in the “freest and most
Islamic” country of the world. Stoning Tudeh News December 2006 - No.239 Page 6 of 6
sentence is indeed a segment of the retribution’s bill of the Supreme Leader’s
regime, and it has been executed for many years in Iran. It is such an inhumane
punishment that has been listed as the worst punishment in the world. Stoning has been
ordered many times during the past years, and currently 12 people (10 women and 2
men) are sentenced to stoning, who are imprisoned in various jails across the
country and the danger of stoning is threatening their lives daily.
Fortunately, grave efforts and campaigns pleading to eliminate the stoning
punishment from the laws of country are ever expanding, among which, women’s
effort is very noticeable, because women comprise a major part of the activists of
these campaigns. These campaigns consis of protesting, gathering signatures and
writing public pleas to leaders and highranking officials of Iran.
One of the primary achievements of these campaigns is to publicize the inhumane
order of stoning and to draw the attention of the public opinion towards the violation of
the human rights in Iran. For instance, there is an active campaign called “The Campaign
for Stoning-free Law”, whose target is to gather signatures to eliminate “stoning”
from the country’s punitive laws. One section of the petition reads: “Stoning
punishment is so inhumane and unacceptable in today’s world that even the
ruling authorities are embarrassed to talk about it and deny its implementation in Iran.
Nevertheless, it is still part of the punitive laws of Iran and its execution … is always
possible...”
“Stoning has not yet brought to a halt, even though the judicial authorities have ordered
to stop this punishment in February 2003.
One woman and a man have been stoned in
Mashad in April 2006. Before stoning, they were treated like dead bodies; they were
cleansed according to Islamic sacraments in the mortuary. Mahboubeh, the woman was
buried up to her shoulder, and Abbas, the man, up to his waist. Following the
ceremonies,
stones were thrown at them by a crowd who volunteered to kill them slowly,
whereas in the media their stoning was
reported as Hanging.”
Regarding the vast protests and reactions to ban stoning, even some of the judicial
authorities have recently denied stoning in Iran and claimed that stoning is not being
ordered in Iran. In response to this claim, and indeed the clear lies of the spokesperson
for the Judicial power, the activists of The Campaign for Stoning-free Law write:
“Despite the denial of judicial and parliamentary authorities of Iran about
stoning in Iran, there are undeniable documents and evidences which show that
in the early morning of May 6, 2006, 2 persons (named Mahboubeh and Abbas)
have been stoned in Mashad. In addition, a woman named Masoumeh,
who was sentenced to stoning, has been hanged in a closed-door room after she was
moved from Rajaei-Shahr prison to the notorious Evin prison, in August 2006.
Furthermore, another woman has been hanged in public in Ghazvin in March 2005
for adultery charges.” The Campaign’s letter continues to ask: “…If we trust that stoning sentences have not yet executed in Iran, then why they insist to keep this punitive
measure in country laws? If such a punishment has not been executed in Iran in the past 28 years [since 1978 revolution], then why 42 articles of Iran’s punitive law
have to be allocated to such an outdated and obsolete law that many of Iranian
authorities, from top to bottom, try to hide or deny?”
These are samples of questions that made some of the judicial authorities of Supreme
Leader’s regime to lie about, and deny the current laws of country.
