TO THE grief of those who were hoping, against the odds, Iran on Wednesday officially rejected the asylum offer for the Iranian woman Sakineh Mohammadi Ashianti, who is facing death by stoning for adultery. Well, Caribbean governments and non-governmental organisations that may have overlooked their moral obligation to lodge appeals on humanitarian grounds against such a ghastly punishment of a woman, still have time to do so. Incidentally, what of the man, or men involved? It takes two to have sex.Having initially signalled a dovish response to the appeal by President Luiz Ignacio Lula daSilva for the 43-year-old widow and mother to be spared from such a horrible form of death and be freed to live in Brazil, the authorities in Tehran have now revealed that even if she is not stoned to death, she could yet be executed for “murder”.Murder? It is an accusation not originally publicly associated with Ashtiani. However, seemingly shaken by widening international outcries against the planned barbaric form of her death, the power-wielders in Tehran disclosed on the eve of a scheduled sitting of Iran’s High Court this past Wednesday that she was guilty of more than adultery.She had participated in the murder of her husband, they said, and details of her “conviction” would be made known to President Lula. They acknowledged him to be a “friend” and “very humane and emotional person” but think that he probably did not have “sufficient information” on Ashtiani when he offered her asylum in Brazil.It appears, therefore, that instead of a triumph for reason by an Iranian regime anxious to deepen relations with Lula’s Brazil, Ashtiani may, at best, be spared from a stoning death. But she could yet be executed for the alleged murder of her husband and reported acts of adultery in 2006. She is a woman who has already been inflicted with 99 lashes and have denied confessing to the claimed crimes. She happens to be one of a number of women victims condemned to die by stoning, in accordance with Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, institutionalised following the 1979 revolution. Of course, the intolerant and bigoted of the Christian faith – wherever located – who urge, for example, the burning of the Quran (holy book of Islam); or worse, the killing of a government leader (like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez), can hardly be expected to defend victims, such as Ashtiani, against the barbarism of dying from a hail of stones. Decent people, of every faith, the world over, whose love for humanity transcends religious and ideological dogmas, ethnicities and nationalities will, for instance, be outraged by plans of a church in Florida, United States (The Dove World Outreach Centre) for an “International Burn-a-Quran Day” to coincide with this month’s ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.What a contrast to the well known biblical story about a humane, caring Jesus Christ calmly telling passionate accusers of a woman they said had committed adultery, that he among them that is without sin should cast the first stone at her. As the accusers walked away, Christ signalled to the woman “to go and sin no more”.Even at this seemingly late hour, hope must not give way to despair that the Iranian authorities may still find a way to spare Ashtiani from a most gruesome fate. In doing so, they will also make President Lula, for one, quite happy, as well as secure better Brazil-Iran relations at this very challenging period for a government in Tehran.
Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.
