Iranian newspaper calls execution by stoning un-Islamic
TEHRAN, Nov 30 (AFP) - Execution by stoning is a practice at odds with
the tenets of Islam and should be suspended immediately, a moderate Iranian
newspaper charged on Monday.
"This practice does not conform to the tradition of the Prophet
(Mohammad) and is not mentioned in the holy Koran," said the moderate
women's newspaper Zan, run by Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former president
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
"This practice is no longer in keeping with our times and must
be replaced by something else," it declared, asking: "Is stoning
really necessary, especially at a time when the world is scrutinising us
to find the slightest excuse for criticising us?"
Stoning as punishment for adultery has been carried out in Iran since
the 1979 Islamic revolution and is also the law in other Islamic nations.
Iranian authorities say the punishment is decreed in the Koran and conforms
to sharia or Islamic law.
According to sharia, men convicted of adultery are buried to their waist
and women buried to their armpits, before they are showered with stones
thrown by a crowd.
The stones must not be large enough to kill the person immediately nor
too small to be "effective." The condemned are acquitted if
they are able to break free while the sentence is being carried out.
A man in northern Iran was acquitted in November after managing to unearth
himself while being stoned for adultery.