STONING

On Dariush Abadi's "Iran stones 1 person and you call that backward?"

Let's assume that, as you say, the US has not attacked Iran "because Iran has played her hand really well." But does that mean Iran has had a lot of progress?! How do you know Iran has attracted more foreign investment in the year 2007 than the previous years? Even if it has, has it been translated into progress in the lives of people? If Iran is making billions of dollars in export, does that mean progress for Iranian citizens?

Well, I have no intention of arguing that Iran has progressed or not, because progress is a relative word. But your argument is just ridiculous and irrelevant. Relating that argument to the fact that one man has been stoned to death is also irrelevant. Asking Afshin ["Progress in the face of savagery"] if he has committed adultery himself is even more irrelevant.

Stoning is a form of human rights violation, it is torture. Even based on Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it should happen in very special circumstances, almost close to none. Jafar Kiani who was stoned to death, well, not in a progressive manner, did not have a fair trial. None of the Penal Code conditions for stoning applied to him.

Can you imagine for a second, how it is to be killed that way? Can you imagine the lives of the 2 men and 9 women who are now in prison, nightmaring their life, waiting to be stoned one day? Can you imagine the painful death of Mahboubeh and Abbas, the couple who were stoned to death last year in Mashhad? Do you even know that many of these women are sentenced to stoning because their husbands have forced them to prostitution?

Would you please do everyone a favor, pick up a piece of stone today, just hit it very gently to your head (be careful not to injure yourself), and then imagine how it will be if that stone would hit your head twice, then three times, then harder, and harder. Just imagine that, while you hit your head with that stone gently.

After doing that, and thinking about what I said, I'd be interested to hear your argument about how progressive a system that implements such a practice can be!

By the way, you can imagine that I am adulterous too. But that doesn't change anything! Stoning is savage, and anybody who thinks stoning is alright is a savage too! I'd rather be called an adulterous than stay savagely silent! But you don't have to be an adulterous to condemn stoning; you just need to have a heart. Comment

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