What is stoning and how it is carried out?

The stoning is legislated in the penalty Law in Iran

Stoning is the most inhumane and horrifying form of execution, which can only be compared with the witch burning in the middle ages. According to the Islamic teaching, the punishment for adultery is death by stoning. Weather this has any roots in the Quran, the holy book of Muslims, or not, is not a relevant point, since the tradition had always been associated with the Islamist societies and according to Hadith (written historical tales, re-told by close friends or relatives of Mohammed the prophet), prophet Mohammed himself had ordered stoning of many people in his own time. 

 In Iran where an Islamic state is governing the country and law is based on religious believes, stoning is officially introduced in the country's codified penalty law. In practice, hundreds of women and men have been stoned to death, since the coming to power of the Islamic republic of Iran.
The penal code, under which the stoning is stated, is called 'The law of Hodoud'. 
According to the Islamic law, sexual acts outside marriage are recognised as crime and offences and are to be punished by law.  But these offences are divided into different categories and the penalty for each is different. Here are some sections of the law of Hodoud:

Article 82 of penal code reads: Punishment for unlawful sexual acts in the following cases is execution, regardless of age, and marital statues
Incest, (unlawful sex with mother, sister or any other close relative)
Unlawful sex with one's stepmother
Sexual intercourse of a non-Muslim man with a Muslim woman (the case of Holmot Houfer, the German ….is clearly falling into this category) 
Forced intercourse(rape) which results in the death of the victim

Article 83: Punishment for unlawful sexual intercourse in the following cases is stoning to death:
When a married man, who has a permanent wife and can have sex with her whenever he wishes so, commits adultery, he is liable to be stoned.
When a married woman, who is permanently married and her husband have had sex when she had been in a healthy state of mind, commits adultery with a fully grown up man, she will be liable to death by stoning.

Apandix1: In the case of sexual relationship between a married woman and an underage man, the punishment is whipping 
Apandix2:  Sexual relationship between an unmarried male and an unmarried female is punished by 100 strikes of lashes each. 

Article 84: In the case of elderly women and men who have committed adultery, they have to undergo ……….before stoning.

Article 90: If a man or women who is being stoned manages to pull himself/ herself out of the ditch and run away, they must be pardoned. However, if a man or a woman manage to escape stoning and commit adultery again, they will be stoned again.  The fourth time in such cases, the offender will be executed straight away.

Article 102:  A man who is sentenced to death by stoning is to be buried to his waist, while a woman who is to be stoned must be buried up to her chest.  

Article 104 states that the stones must not be so large that the person dies with only few strikes, nor should it be so small that look like pebbles.  They must be of a middle size and are meant to cause sever injuries and eventually lead to the death of the offender. 

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Stoning is usually carried out in public and in many cases, families of the victims have been forced to watch the processes.  Although it is stated in the penalty law that if a person manages to escape the ditch and get away, he or she will be pardoned, there are many cases in which the victim is re-captured by the authorities and shot to death on the spot.  

On October 1989, the daily newspaper 'Resalat' published a story of a woman who had been stoned to death in the holy city of Qom. The woman had managed to pull herself up and run away, but she had been re-captured and forced back into the ditch. After an hour of stoning she had eventually died. 

Due to people's resistance in the country against stoning and the unpopularity it brought for the reputation of the government worldwide, the media has never published most of the cases of stoning. There, however, is still a considerable number that have been published. Here are some examples of such news, reported by newspapers, 'Resalat' 'Hamshahri', 'Abrar', 'Kayhan', 'Jemhori e Islami, etc… :

On February 1994, Mina kolvat was stoned to death in the capital city of Tehran.  
March the same year another woman was stoned in the city of Qom.
August 1994, a woman was stoned in the city of Arak.  The Papers stated that she escaped the stoning but was shot to death on the spot. 
First November 1992, Fatima Bani was stoned to death in the city of Isfahan.
!991, 3 women were reported stoned in the towns of Qom and rash
1990, five women were stoned to death in Lahijan, Langrood and Bandar Anzali
1989, 8 women were stoned in Kermanshah and Karaj.
1989, a group of 10 prostitutes were stoned to death in the city of Bushaher.
On ……angry people who had been gathering around rescued .a woman called Zolikha Kadkhoda. She had been taken to hospital and treated. 

The International Campaign in Defence of Women's Rights in Iran, has actively fought against these atrocities and managed to attract international attention to what is happening to women in Iran.  Last year a woman called Masomah Sadeqyan was sentenced to stoning.  We organised a successful campaign to stop it and managed to contact hundreds of women and human rights organisations all around the world.  Thousands of protest letters were send to Iranian embassies in western countries.  As a result the Islamic government had to give in under the international pressure and Masomah Sadeqyan escaped a horrible death. 
Three months ago once again the Iranian Newspapers announced stoning sentences of three people.  None of which had yet been stoned.  But maryam Ayoobi's case had been finalised and she is now awaiting her agonising death.  

We have to put a stop to these horrible acts of inhumanity in our world.  No government or religious sects should be allowed to bury a human been alive and torture her/him to death. 

Mina Ahadi
The international committee against stoning
 
mailto: Minaahadi@aol.com
Tel: 0049- 01775692413