Iran's Islamic Judges Condemn Mother-of-Two to Be Stoned to Death After Adultery Conviction

You believe - or pretend to believe - you have such a close connection with your god - islam's 'allah' in this case - that you're pretty damn sure you know what he has in mind for women. Women are inferior and to be kept under stifling, all-enveloping black cloth, mostly in the house, given a beating from time to time and made to share their husbands with a bunch of other women.

And if they ever stray (difficult under the circumstances to see how they'd get the chance) then your certainty about punishment is rock-solid.

A woman whom you deem to have strayed is to be buried up to her neck in dirt and stoned to death.

Reading that sentence again, it's hard for anyone with the tiniest grain of civilization in their heads to comprehend the barbarity of these evil power-mad sadists masquerading as legal authorities and clerics.

But Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old Iranian mother-of-two, is only too well aware of the savagery of the men in control of the lives of Iranian women. Convicted of committing adultery in 2006, Ashtiani has been sentenced to death by stoning.

Ashtiani's daughter, Farideh, 16, and son, Sajad, 20, have issued a desperate appeal to "the international community" pleading for help to save their mother's life. "Please help end this nightmare - do not let it turn into a reality" Farideh and Sajad urged. "Help us save our mother." Whether international governments will act is hard to predict. Whether the insensate heads in Iran will take notice if they do is even harder.

Ashtiani was originally sentenced to be whipped 99 times. She says her 'confession' was forced out of her. After she was given 99 lashes, a later judgement decreed death by stoning. Iran's islamic - i.e. "religious" - penal code holds adultery punishable by death. Transgressors offending Iran's religious police and judges may be buried up to their necks or waists and stoned to death or they may be flogged by heavy whips until finally dying of pain, exhaustion and blood-loss. Even when slaughtering people because of their sexual choices - or alleged sexual choices - Iran's mad clerics manage to stamp down harder on women than men. Anyone condemned to stoning who escapes the barrage of rocks may be acquitted or jailed instead of being 'legally' murdered. It just so happens that men are buried up to their waists in order to be stoned and women are buried up to their necks. It has been known for a man to occasionally haul himself out of his grave while being stoned - but clearly a woman buried up to her neck has no chance of escape. The official - seriously warped - explanation for this sadistic game is that, if women are buried to their necks while being battered, proper islamic respect is shown to their breasts. A woman's brains may be batterered out as she dies, but her breasts won't be seen.

Another islamic principle Iran operates while killing people with stones is that the stones shouldn't be big or small. Medium-sized stones fit Iran's islamic bill. Why? If the stones are too small it'll just take too long to stone a man or woman to death. But if they're too big, death might come too quickly - the person being murdered won't suffer as much as 'allah' wants. Stonings can last up to 20 minutes as victims' heads and necks are progresively battered until death occurs.

Ashtiani's main hope, before these sadists carry out this murder, is that international pressure can be brought to bear on Iran's religious regime. Iranian lawyers have been campaigning for years to get rid of the savagery of stoning, without success.

Although stoning has been carried out less frequently in recent years than it was in the years after Iran's islamic revolution, there were an astonishing 126 fatal stonings during the first half of 2010.

Iran would no doubt say it has the strongest islamic belief in the world. It also has the highest execution rate per capita. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and Farideh and Sajad cannot hope for Iranian justice so they have to hope for international pressure. Let's hope it's forthcoming.