No further comment appropriate for this one. I just hope there is enough moral influence from the world to overturn the moral travesty of the officials responsible in Iran.

Any and all help may well help:

(From Avaaz)

Sakineh Ashtiani could be executed for adultery in Iran in the next few days, but two men could still save her -- the leaders of Brazil and Turkey.

President Lula and Prime Minister ErdoÄŸan are powerful allies and mediators with Iran who enjoy great respect there, and both countries have condemned the case. Now, we need to push them to deploy all their diplomatic forces and persuade Iran to free Sakineh and stop stoning forever.

Avaaz is launching an emergency ad campaign in influential newspapers in Turkey and Brazil urging them to press Iran for clemency and justice. The ads will deliver our half-million strong petition, reach political circles and directly appeal to Lula's and ErdoÄŸan's leadership and moral authority. If 5,000 of us donate even a small amount in the next 72 hours, we'll make a powerful statement before it's too late. This may be Sakineh's last hope -- click here to chip in:

save_sakinehs_life

Sakineh’s sentence is a farcical travesty of justice. She was sentenced to death by stoning for allegedly having relations with other men -- years after her husband had passed away, despite stoning having been outlawed in Iran, and despite her not being able to speak the language of her trial. Her two children launched a campaign to save her life, and generated a worldwide uproar, including over 554,000 Avaaz members. Feeling the pressure, the Iranian government revoked the stoning, but the execution sentence stands.

Tension has been rising in Iran since the Sakineh case gained attention -- the regime has threatened to arrest her children for speaking out and has issued an arrest warrant against Sakineh's lawyer. He has now gone into hiding and his family-members have been rounded-up.

But Lula and ErdoÄŸan have great respect in Iran and can influence the regime. And they listen to us. Lula had said that he would not get involved in this case. But after an aide brought his attention to the massive online campaign, he changed his mind, offering Sakineh asylum and prompting Iranian authorities to announce that the case would be quickly resolved. We know Lula listens to Avaaz campaigns -- in the last year, despite powerful opposition, members in Brazil have helped persuade Lula to sign off on a law to protect the Amazon and a bold anti-corruption law.

During the last two weeks, over 554,000 of us have signed the petition to Save Sakineh and end stoning in Iran. We only have days left to persuade Lula and ErdoÄŸan to act -- and it may be our last chance to save Sakineh. Let's each pitch in a small amount and make sure they hear our call to leadership:

save_sakinehs_life

Sakineh's case has outraged the entire world by the sheer scale of its brutal, nonsensical injustice. But in our fight for one woman we make a powerful statement about women, and people, everywhere. In standing up for one person, we stand up for everyone's right to justice.

Sakineh's children's have sent out a last plea: "Do not allow our nightmare become a reality, Today, when nearly all options have reached dead-ends, we resort to you. Please help our mother return home!" Click here to answer their call, and get ErdoÄŸan and Lula to do the same:

save_sakinehs_life

With hope and determination,

Alice, Pascal, Alice W, Ricken, David, and the Avaaz Team

SOURCES:

The Guardian, "Iran stoning woman offered asylum by Brazil's President Lula"


Today's Zaman, "Eyes on Turkey after Brazil offers asylum to Sakineh"





It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

No further comment appropriate for this one. I just hope there is enough moral influence from the world to overturn the moral travesty of the officials responsible in Iran.

Any and all help may well help:

(From Avaaz)

... Sakineh's case has outraged the entire world by the sheer scale of its brutal, nonsensical injustice. But in our fight for one woman we make a powerful statement about women, and people, everywhere. In standing up for one person, we stand up for everyone's right to justice.

Sakineh's children's have sent out a last plea: "Do not allow our nightmare become a reality, Today, when nearly all options have reached dead-ends, we resort to you. Please help our mother return home!" Click here to answer their call, and get ErdoÄŸan and Lula to do the same:

save_sakinehs_life

With hope and determination,
Alice, Pascal, Alice W, Ricken, David, and the Avaaz Team

SOURCES:
The Guardian, "Iran stoning woman offered asylum by Brazil's President Lula"
Today's Zaman, "Eyes on Turkey after Brazil offers asylum to Sakineh"

Hopefully, the continued world interest will have some positive effect:

The 'Free Sakineh' Mohammadi Ashtiani Movement Spreads Through Petitions And Letters

However, it isn't over yet, and Iran is squirming:

Iran rejects Brazil asylum for woman facing stoning

Iran calls Ashtiani a murderer; her lawyer arrested in Turkey

... This is rather unclear. If Ashtiani was not tried, much less convicted, of murder, it's horrendous that the charge has been resurrected years after her trial. The current stance of Iran's government apparently is that Ashtiani is to be executed for a crime she was not convicted of. It is hard to believe that this is legal, even in Iran.

[...]

Ashtiani is not the only victim in her case. Her lawyer was forced into hiding and members of his family taken hostage. ...


All very strange...


The two petitions running for Sakineh are:

Avaaz: Stop Stoning!

and

Help us free Sakineh


The Avaaz advertising campaign to push the politics is:

save_sakinehs_life



It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

... All very strange...


The two petitions running for Sakineh are:

Avaaz: Stop Stoning!

and

Help us free Sakineh


The Avaaz advertising campaign to push the politics is:

save_sakinehs_life

The Avaaz petition is well on the way to being signed by 600 000 people. No detail for how their advertising petition is running, hopefully well enough to make a big splash. I'm sure all help will be useful.

A brief update is:

August 5: Sakineh’s lawyer arrested; fate of Sakineh to be handed down next week – hanging likely; President Lula’s offer of amnesty flatly refused by Iranian leadership.


It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

What else can we expect from President Amahidiot? They also Hang Teenagers in the town square from a crane rather than stoning - all in the name of a merciful God.

They sure are setting a good example for the rest of the world to emulate.

---

Classic WU= 7,237 Classic Hours= 42,079

I agree that this situation and sets of laws are something left over from a primative stage in human development.

When ever and where ever religion becomes the driving force behind government, outrages such as this one become common place events.
Christians have not done any better when their church dominated society.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/how-do-we-convince-iran-that-stoning-is-barbaric/article1662016/

---

I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Don't they still do this crap in Saudi Arabia?

---

Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

The Saudis are more fond of public beheadings, I believe.

---

I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

... All very strange...


The two petitions running for Sakineh are:

Avaaz: Stop Stoning!

and

Help us free Sakineh


The Avaaz advertising campaign to push the politics is:

save_sakinehs_life

The Avaaz petition is well on the way to being signed by 600 000 people. No detail for how their advertising petition is running, hopefully well enough to make a big splash. I'm sure all help will be useful.

A brief update is:

August 5: Sakineh’s lawyer arrested; fate of Sakineh to be handed down next week – hanging likely; President Lula’s offer of amnesty flatly refused by Iranian leadership.

The Guardian in the UK has been running a series of articles for Sakineh and about Iran. Hopefully, they can keep this in the world's public gaze long enough to encourage some reforms in Iran and other Arab countries.

Iranian facing stoning speaks: 'It's because I'm a woman'

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, speaking through an intermediary, accused Tehran of trying to ‘confuse the media’ in order to kill her in secret.

... Mohammadi Ashtiani fears that the exile of her original lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, has made her more vulnerable. "They wanted to get rid of my lawyer so that they can easily accuse me of whatever they want without having him to speak out. If it was not for his attempts, I would have been stoned to death by now." ...



It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Have to wonder why any particular form of death penalty is picked out as uniquely barbaric and distinct from any other form. Where ever there's a death penalty punishment in force, there will be miscarriages of justice that are not rectifiable. This appears to be one such instance in Iran. I wonder do those that are protesting about it also protest executions no matter who the victim and where it's taking place?

---

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

I'm against the right of any state to take the life of one of it's citizens.

I also agree that the method of dispatching a human to oblivion doesn't make the act any more acceptable...but being buried to the waist with hands bound while rocks are thrown at one's head seems a very cruel way to go.

---

I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Have to wonder why any particular form of death penalty is picked out as uniquely barbaric and distinct from any other form. Where ever there's a death penalty punishment in force, there will be miscarriages of justice that are not rectifiable. This appears to be one such instance in Iran. I wonder do those that are protesting about it also protest executions no matter who the victim and where it's taking place?

I don't have a problem with the Death Penalty or even stoning...It is what a women has to do to deserve it in those Countries that bothers me. A man doesn't have to worry about it...Should be equal for both sexes. I can't believe women Everywhere aren't more outraged. Doesn't Adultery take two people? Why aren't the men on trial? I bet if all the men in Iran went without sex for a month things would change. They would probably stone all the Women....

---

Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Have to wonder why any particular form of death penalty is picked out as uniquely barbaric and distinct from any other form. Where ever there's a death penalty punishment in force, there will be miscarriages of justice that are not rectifiable. This appears to be one such instance in Iran. I wonder do those that are protesting about it also protest executions no matter who the victim and where it's taking place?

I don't have a problem with the Death Penalty or even stoning...It is what a women has to do to deserve it in those Countries that bothers me. A man doesn't have to worry about it...Should be equal for both sexes. I can't believe women Everywhere aren't more outraged. Doesn't Adultery take two people? Why aren't the men on trial? I bet if all the men in Iran went without sex for a month things would change. They would probably stone all the Women....

That is their culture, any indescretion is blamed on the woman. Women have been stoned for being raped.

Needless to say, not a place I want to visit. One of the worst places was Afghanistan. I have not heard what if any improvements are occuring in the last few years. But the entire area, I would avoid like the plague.

---

Janice

From what I saw somewhere, perhaps in the links, the woman's husband had died many years before the event happened. Religion or not, this is a dog eat dog world with the dominant coming out on top regardless of right or wrong.

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

The woman was accused of killing her husband but was acquitted. Then they came up with the adultery charge. Now that the world has got them to not stone her they have come back and are saying she was guilty of killing her husband. So, they are now threatening to hang her instead of stoning.

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

The woman was accused of killing her husband but was acquitted. Then they came up with the adultery charge. Now that the world has got them to not stone her they have come back and are saying she was guilty of killing her husband. So, they are now threatening to hang her instead of stoning.

Thank you for clearing me up on that. I don't have a problem with different cultures, but when they force their views on those who cannot leave, it does rub a raw nerve. If everyone concerned wants to live like that, then OK. From my understanding, most of those in such a situation don't want it, but are stuck for one reason or another.

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

... All very strange...


The two petitions running for Sakineh are:

Avaaz: Stop Stoning!

and

Help us free Sakineh


The Avaaz advertising campaign to push the politics is:

save_sakinehs_life

The story continues...


Government’s silence on Ashtiani is deafening

... Now Iran is again in the world’s headlines as the source of international opprobrium. In this instance, it is the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. A case that defies understanding, Ashtiani apparently had some level of intimate relations with a man after she was widowed. By some mullah’s logic in Tehran, this was judged to be adultery. Initially, Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning. International reaction has had some impact. In an act of compassion, the Iranian justice system has converted this sentence to a mere hanging.

The outrage of this needs no elucidation. But we think the third round of official reticence to comment in Ankara does. Such mild comment as has emerged from Ankara this time has been limited to reassurances that diplomats are doing what they can behind the scenes. We’d like to believe once again that Turkey’s unique posture is sufficient. We do not. ...

... But piety, or even religiosity, can be no excuse for silence on this issue. There is simply no defense of Iran’s actions possible under any contemporary interpretation of Islam. Even if there were, silence from an administration bent on European Union membership, from a leader constantly wrapping himself in the mantle of democrat, in a country that has banned the death penalty, is unconscionable.

If all that has ensued in Turkey’s policy of appeasement toward Iran has indeed been done in the name of building political capital for the longer term good, then now it is time to redeem that capital. Silence on Ashtiani is shamefully unacceptable.


Iranian lawyer fleeing from Iran ends up in Oslo

Oslo. Iranian lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, who claimed that Iranian authorities attempted to arrest him, ended up in Oslo over the weekend with help from the Norwegian government, Xinhua informed.
Mostafaei, seen as a human rights activist in the West for his role in defending an Iranian woman called Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and juvenile delinquents, told reporters in Oslo on Sunday that he arrived in Oslo on Saturday with air tickets provided by the Norwegian Embassy in Turkey.
He said that he was not in his Tehran office when policemen came with an arrest warrant on July 22 and those policemen then took into custody his wife, father-in-law and brother-in-law, ...



At least she's not dead yet.


It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

... All very strange...


The two petitions running for Sakineh are:

Avaaz: Stop Stoning!

and

Help us free Sakineh


The Avaaz advertising campaign to push the politics is:

save_sakinehs_life

The story continues...


Pressure Mounts on Both Sides As Iran Proceeds to Stone Gay Man

... There had been a history of feuding between their families. A fist fight ensued...

... Ebrahim was hanged upside down by his legs and badly beaten. To stop this abuse, he signed a confession.

There is no evidence that Ebrahim is gay or that a sexual assault took place; just the word of one person against another and a confession under torture, which was later retracted.

At his first trial in 2008, Ebrahim was sentenced to hang on the the basis of the "knowledge of the judge" - a bizarre legal protocol whereby, in the absence of sufficient evidence to convict in sodomy and adultery cases, a judge is free to assess that a person is guilty. ...


US urges Iran to halt 'imminent' executions

... Clinton alleged that "neither case has proceeded with the transparency or due process enshrined in Iran's own constitution" and noted that the lawyer representing them "felt that he had to flee Iran." ...


Free Sakineh

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iranian Mother, could be put to death at any moment

August 9: Fate of Sakineh to be handed down this week – hanging likely; President Lula’s offer of amnesty flatly refused by Iranian leadership.



Looks like the story is far from over and help and vigilance are still needed. Are the Iranian authorities playing for time to allow interest to diminish?...

Can any world-wide women's groups raise a loud clamour for her cause and for all women in Iran?


At least she's not dead yet.


It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

... All very strange...


The two petitions running for Sakineh are:

Avaaz: Stop Stoning!

and

Help us free Sakineh


The Avaaz advertising campaign to push the politics is:

save_sakinehs_life

The story continues...

Free Sakineh

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iranian Mother, could be put to death at any moment

August 9: Fate of Sakineh to be handed down this week – hanging likely; President Lula’s offer of amnesty flatly refused by Iranian leadership.

Is this part of the pressure to for Iran to still see her hanged?


Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani set for Iran stoning after TV 'confession'

An Iranian mother sentenced to death by stoning for killing her husband has apparently confessed to murder and adultery on state television...

... Mohammadi Ashtiani also appeared to attack her lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, saying he had brought shame on her family by publicising her case.

Iran has issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr Mostafaei, who is living in Norway.

It was not possible to fully verify the identify of the interviewed woman, whose face was blurred.

The International Committee Against Stoning, a rights group, described the broadcast as ‘toxic propaganda’...

Looks like the story is far from over and help and vigilance are still needed. Are the Iranian authorities playing for time to allow interest to diminish?...

Can any world-wide women's groups raise a loud clamour for her cause and for all women in Iran?

A reporter is asking the same question:


Why have Western feminists been so muted in their criticisms of Iran?

The fate of the 43-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning took a sinister turn yesterday when she appeared on Iranian state television to confess to her “crimes”. Her lawyer fears she will now be executed imminently, probably hung by the neck until she is dead.

Many human rights groups have criticised the Iranian authorities for their brutal treatment of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani...

... Yet the response of feminists in the West has been strangely muted.



At least she's not dead yet.


It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

A reporter is asking the same question:


Why have Western feminists been so muted in their criticisms of Iran?

The fate of the 43-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning took a sinister turn yesterday when she appeared on Iranian state television to confess to her “crimes”. Her lawyer fears she will now be executed imminently, probably hung by the neck until she is dead.

Many human rights groups have criticised the Iranian authorities for their brutal treatment of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani...

... Yet the response of feminists in the West has been strangely muted.



At least she's not dead yet.


It's ALL our world,

Regards,
Martin

This really does blow me away that Women aren't making World wide protests...This is a time when they could Really change the World.

---

Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

It is like a slow motion gory scene, It is senseless, it is ugly, it is gross, an incredible injustice, but it is so politically/religiously loaded it is impossible to stop. The worlds outrage just further feeds into the self righteousness of the Iraqi government. The louder the outcry, the more determined they become.

There is no justice. But their law is clear to them. It is wrong to any free thinking person, but I see nothing that will stop it. Much like trying to stop a witch trial hundreds of years ago. Anyone there that speaks out becomes a target. Anyone outside of there that speaks out is dismissed.

"I would love to change the world, but I don't know what to do. So I leave it up to you"

---

Janice