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Thursday * Heard her death Dear Setareh, I wanted to thank you for your wonderful article, "The first stone" . I too have been very disturbed by the brutality against women in Iran. I remember one day I opened the Wall Street Journal, and right there on the front page, I saw an article about a woman stoned to death in Iran. She had been accused of pornography. The article which only consisted of a few sentences left me numb. I could not erase the image of the stoning in my head. I heard her screams, pleas, and finally her last breath. You asked whether there would have been women throwing stones too. Sadly, I have a gut feeling that they were there. I think they would probably throw the most and be the first to condemn her. Despite all the courageous Iranian women who are rising and speaking against the injustices done to our gender, there still exists those uneducated women in Iran who are unable to think for themselves. These women would fear anything but the constrained second-class lifestyle that they are forced to live, in the name of Islam. A woman who has taken the "wrong" path would be a threat to them. A threat that perhaps there is another way of living. A threat that life does not have to be led under a man's complete control. A threat that they too can be free. Free to express themselves anyway they please. Imagine how frightening that could be to one who knows only captivity. Take a look at this picture. You can feel the emotions on the woman's face. It speaks a thousand words. * Fact or fiction When I saw the opinion piece,"The first stone" by Ms. Setareh Sabety, I quickly clicked on the article and began to read with an endless interest as I have always done when faced with her writings. Over time, I have come to share most of her views and developed a sense of respect for her writings. I have found her writings to be a fair assessment of an event and her analysis pretty accurate. While I agree with what is being said, I will attempt to shed some light and answer the questions rightfully asked by Ms.Sabety: " I want to know why is it that -- in Sharia Law-- if a person can climb out of the hole and run away, he or she is exonerated? are you less of an adulterer if you can survive a stoning? These are very important questions and worth thinking about for anyone who is a Muslim and adheres to the pillars of Islam. In fact, Ms. Sabety's questions are closely related to an article which appeared in The Independent written by Robert Fisk on June 6. "All those cruel Muslim regimes abuse the people of the Middle East," he wrote. "What about the mercy and compassion which are among the first words of the Qur'an?" This article too, was questioning stoning which is practiced by Muslim states (Iran among them). The Qur'an is the only guiding book of Islam which contains the Sharia Law. Anything out side this is unacceptable. My personal research in Islam and discussions with scholars in the field (mollas were not among them) has revealed tremendous amount of misconceptions and dogmatisms about Islam practiced by corrupted individuals who in the name of Islam have done more damage to Islam than any other forces. I too, have come across much nonsense and baseless attributions to Islam. I too, have scratched my head in total shock and bewilderment when I hear such and such was stoned to death. That is why I picket up the Qur'an long time ago and decided to read it "word by word" with the intention of understanding the religion that I was born into and practiced with so little information about until then. Dear Ms. Sabety, I assure you there is absolutely no reference anywhere in the Qur'an to stoning to death of anyone for any reason. So, stoning to death is not part of "Sharia Law". Having said this, I would like to point out that there are verses (Sura Nur, Ayeh 2-10) in the Qur'an which have clearly stated punishment for adulterers. However, the charge of adultery requires four faithful individuals testifying to the crime. Each of the witnesseses must have been present when the alleged crime took place. You see, it is practically impossible to prove this kind of accusation. How can you have four faithful individuals present while two people engage in an act of fornication? So, please next time when you start preaching about punishments in Islam, you owe it to yourself to pick up the copy of the Qur'an and study it for yourself. This way you can eventually set aside fact from fiction. * Time travel Bravo for this intelligent and thought-provoking article ["The first stone"]. It is a tragic and sad fact of life in Mr Khatami's Islamic Republic that barbaric acts like the stoning to death of women takes place. The only tours that can be promoted to Iran right now are those that aim to transport people to another time. Let's put one together, we can sell it by telling people on the tour they will be given a glimpse of life around the time of Christ. Sadly we can't offer crucifixation parties, but how about hanging people from cranes in public, will that do? It makes me ashamed to call myself an Iranian. * Long live Islam Well-said Ms. Sabety ["The first stone"]. I have often thought about this barbarous act, and I share your sentiments. It is a fact about stoning in the Islamic Republic that if you can dig your way out of the hole that you were put into then according to the some celestial law only revealed to Mohammad the Arab, you can actually go free.Which one do you think has a better chance of getting out??!! Now you know the answer to the question as to why females are buried up to their neck and males up to their waist!! Long live Islam and may its influence never wither from our lives for otherwise we Iranians of Zoroastanian descent will surely go unsaved. MP * Don't visit America Although I believe Ms. Sabety has valid and urgent points to consider ["The first stone"]; I think that she is penalizing the rest of the country and society for some specific faults. Does she also hesitate to recommend America as a tourist destination because there are teenagers being killed for their basketball shoes, there are drive-by shootings, drug wars on the streets, and an image of sex and violence being part of every day life as portrayed by Hollywood movies? I think that people should be encouraged to go to Iran and see for themselves the good and the bad. Then they can form their own opinions. And I am willing to bet more often than not they will come away happy and satisfied with what they find. * No relation I had a comment about the article that I read, "The first stone". First of all I did not see any relevance between tourism in Iran and stoning. Let me make this a little more clear. When you want to travel to a country to visit, to learn about their culture and to enjoy the beauty of that country, do you really care about the government or how they punish their people? Are those people who visit Iran going to be caught for sleeping with someone? No. How could you promote Iran as a destination for tourism? I am sorry if you do not know that much about Iran but Iran is a country of tourism. Iran is a beautiful country that not only foreigners but even I myself who has lived in Iran enjoys every bit because there is just so much to Iran, more than what you think. There are good people and bad people everywhere. So we should not be ashamed of being Iranian ["Ashamed to be Iranian"] just because the guy who throws the stone speaks the same language as us and is from the same country as us. Thank you, * Outstanding Simply outstanding! I loved your article ["The first stone"]. God bless your wits and ability to write so well. Yours truly, Ben Bagheri * If we have one voice Ms. Sabety, I heard you. We heard you. and I am sure Iran heard you. Millions of Iranians all over the world have heard you. We, as Iranians, as human beings, as creatures on this earth, must loudly voice our concern on such barbaric acts and many more. It must not matter where this barbaric "law" has come from. A "law" that disregards human dignity must be voided. In today's news I read that human rights organizations have strongly protested this barbaric act. If your voice, my voice, and our vice connect, we may be able to have a small chance to save another of our sisters and brothers. We may have a small chance to force the Islamic Republic to void this inhuman, barbaric act. * One-sided I would first like to thank Mr Zamani for sending a reply ["If I had been shrewd"] to my letter, "Politicizing Googoosh". Mr Zamani seems to have misunderstood parts of my criticism. Had he read my letter carefully, he would see that at no point in my letter have I accused the film of being pro-Islamic Republic. In stating that the film is one dimentional and one sided I was refering to it's portrayal of pre-revolution Iran. Every single contributor is a nationalist or left-wing and therefore fiercely anti-Pahlavi as well as anti-Islamic Republic. That is why I posed the one-sidedness question. Surely, if a fairer more balanced view of the political history of Iran was to be given, one, just one, contributor could have been found who also pointed out some of the positive social acheivements of the 50 yeares or so preceeding the revolution. This is plainly clear from my letter though Mr Zamani has sadly chosen to ignore this and suggest that I meant he was pro Islamic Republic which he and the film clearly are not. Finally, Mr Zamani, I am sorry that you resent my implication that Googoosh's name has been used once again to sell a product which under any other name may not have sold as much. What I resent Mr Zamani is thinking I was buying a film about Googoosh and having to sit through 158 minutes of anti-Pahlavi rhetoric. Maybe I should have read all your interviews before buying the film; foolishly I went by the title of the fim. * You don't fit "How do I fit into the Iranian society?" asked Mrs. Shirazi ["Quiet weekends"]. The answer is, plain and simple: "You just don't!" It's not reasonable to violate the norms of a people and expect to be accepted by them. And as Mrs. Shirazi herself points out, a perfect family, not career, has been the "Iranian dream" for as long as we can remember. (It's noteworthy that there is no word for "career" in Persian; not to the best of my knowledge, at least.) Of course, you're born free, especially in the US, and you can do whatever you would like to do with your life, as long as you remain in the confines of the law. But if you want to BELONG to a social group, if you don't want them to make your life miserable, so you can enjoy your romantic trips to Europe without being disturbed by the thought of what they'd say about you, then you've got to respect their norms and try your best to live up to their expectations. It's as simple as that, and you don't really need a Ph.D. in Philosophy to understand it. I wonder if you, Mrs. Shirazi, have ever asked yourself why you're so worried about, or at least bothered by, being labeled "naa-zaa"? Dig deep, and as you seem to be an intelligent woman, you'll probably find out. If you explored for a while, looking for an answer to this important question, but you still can't overcome your fear of getting pregnant and having babies, then just tell the fozool family and friends that you or your husband are sterile, and you've seen all sorts of doctors, but it's hopeless. Tell them that DESPITE not being able to have kids, you love each other so much that you don't want to have kids by other women (as in Mehrjooi's `Leila') or other men, say, through sperm banks. This little "doroogh-e maslahat-aamiz" (and who knows if it's not actually true?) is guaranteed to save you a lot of lumps in the throat and tears in the eyes. Tell them that you just want to have each other, work harder, double your saving accounts every couple of years, increase the area of your house, the number of your rooms, the area of your TV screen, the number of your cars, and so on and so forth. I can assure you that it's the only way by which you can shut 'em up. Otherwise, they'll keep bugging you for a dozen more years or so until you're totally out of eggs. * We don't want them Enough of calling Farah "Queen" and Leila "Princess" ["Working mother"]. That is so disgusting. Some of you people are so backward. Get with the times. Smell the coffee. Wake up! There are no more self-titled kings, queens and princesses. And we don't want them anyway. * Uplifting The letter from Ped ["Farah our Diana"] lifted my spirits this morning. One of the biggest injusticies of this revolution was to paint the royal family and everyone connected to that system of government with the same brush, forgetting all the things that the likes of Farah Diba did for the people of our country. Farah Diba did more for Iranians than Diana ever did for the Brits. Diana however, is a national icon and elevated to the position of a Saint. Farah Diba is to this date villified by some - even when she is grieving for her daughter. Aren't the farangis who are supposed to be cold and heartless and Iranians fair and kind? Kourosh * Silent photos Photos are nice ["Voices in the dark"]. But what did they talk about? * Leila Malekzadeh I am looking for my friend Leila Malekzadeh. We went to Valiollah Nasr (Narjes) high school in Tehran. The last I know of her, she was living in Turkey and had a son, and was waiting for a visa to go to Sweden. She has a sister named Nazi. I would appreciate any information you may have. I can be contacted at nedakam@hotmail.com. Warmly, Neda Kamranpour
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