As One Life Hangs in the Balance, Another Is Spared
American hiker Sarah Shourd, above, receiving a humanitarian visit from her mother in Iranian prison earlier this year. Iranian authorities have announced they will release Shourd, one of three captive American hikers, Saturday after being detained in Iranian prison for over a year. (photo: EPA)
As Muslims mark the end of Ramadan, an announcement has been made that American hiker Sarah Shourd, 31, who has been detained with her two male companions in Iran since July 2009, will be released by that country's government as an act of clemency.
The news of Shourd's release comes as much of the world is watching the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery.
A brief text message from Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Thursday confirmed Shourd's impending release, scheduled to take place Saturday morning, announcing the "freedom of one of the American detainees on Saturday 20th of (Iranian month of) Shahrivar at 9.00 (0430 GMT) at Hotel Esteghal" in Tehran.
Many human rights observers have feared that Ashtiani's sentence of death by stoning, which was said to be suspended pending investigation by Iranian authorites, would be carried out after the end of Ramadan. The European Union and the Vatican are among those appealing privately and publicly for Ashtiani's life to be spared. Ashtiani is reported to have incurred 99 lashings in recent days in an unrelated charge, that of having a photograph of herself publicly printed without head covering. The photograph, published by British news organization The Times on August 28th, was mistakenly identified as Ashtiani and the newspaper later published an apology. Stoning has rarely been used as a means of execution in Iran since being instituted in 1983, and has been decried by others as being unjust. Iranian judiciary announced a year ago it would take stoning out of that country's Islamic penal code; however, adultery is a crime still considered punishable by stoning in that country.
Shourd's release will be good news to many who have advocated for the release of the American hikers. The mothers of the three Americans were permitted to visit their children in Iranian prison earlier this year after the intervention of human rights organizations. Shourd is said to be suffering from medical problems.
Meanwhile, Ashtiani's fate remains uncertain.
Casting the first stone. In an outtake from a movie about an Iranian stoning, a hand is raised preparing to be one of many participating in a brutal execution. Stoning is still occasionally used in Iran in cases of adultery, despite public outcry against it. Women are buried to their shoulders,and men to their waists before the execution takes place. (photo from "The Stoning of Soroya M.": thephoenix.com)
On the Web:
Iran to Free 1 of 3 Americans in Holiday Clemency - The Associated Press
American to Be Released by Iran - Al Jazeera (English)
US Hiker to Be Released 'Very Soon' - AFP
Iran to Release Detained U.S. Hiker
European Pressure Mounts on Iran Over Stoning Case - The Associated Press
Ashtiani to Be Lashed Over Newspaper Photograph - The Guardian
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Ted Frier
Cleverley
J. P. Major
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Salon.com
Comments
Rated and Tink Picked.
But I do think you're right, Kathy. The more important story is what of the other women in Iran? And before someone makes a comment about Muslims and barbarism, I'd remind them that there are fundamentalist Christians who would have us live in a theocracy in which similar punishments would be meted out.
Not on my watch.
M. Varn Chandola
rightlegalhelp.net
But that's an inappropriate comparison. You're comparing an
ACTUAL punishment that could very well be carried out in an Islamic state with a punishment that does not exist, and that is merely advocated by a tiny minority of Christians.
This is one of these "Christians are just as bad" phony comparisons, in which real actions by Islamic governments and significant numbers of Muslims are compared with statements (not actions) by small numbers of Christians who are on the fringe. Of course, in recent years given the massive amount of death and destruction inflicted by Islamic organizations in the name of Allah and Islam, it's hard to come up with a good comparison.
Some factions of the human race sicken me.
I'm not sure if attention to either case will help anyone in the future. This is one stoning death that we're being made aware of - maybe it happens every day.
It bothers me that these hikers are wasting our money and time while real human rights issues happen.
The Grand Canyon? The Tetons? the Appalachian Trail?
No, it's only cool if we go into Iran. Stupid, stupid Americans.
The barbarism in Iran is a reality not a hypothetical surmise and Iran is a theocratic state not just a delusional wish by a fundamentalist Christian. Why is this so difficult to see that we don't have to stretch here or postulate in the case of Iran...where do you think Ashianti would rather be right now? In America within stone's throw of a fundamentalist Christian or where she is now? In America where the law can protect you from nuts who would use religion to punish or in Iran where the fundamentalists are running the country and the religion is the law? I know a fundamentalist Christian male who made excuses for his ex-wife's infidelity while they were married. I don't think we can begin to imagine what it must be like to be female in Iran or live in a country that is a totalitarian theocracy and dictatorship. I wish Ashianti was safe in our country and she could freely speak her mind. Often the adultery charges are not even true and a young woman can be raped and stoned. We have the luxury of being able to conjecture about this barbarism as if 2 wrongs make a right. Ashianti has no rights and soon will not have a life.
The cases that you talk about are the Iranian equivalent of no bread and phony circuses designed to rile up those people in Iran who are sheeple.
And somehow, all of this is not too dissimilar to what's happening in the US right now.
And I wish all the hikers were coming back.
I do wonder about what those hikers were really doing, but until they are all free I doubt we will know.
Death by stoning can occur in any Muslim country as punishment for adultery. the religous leaders often have the final say in passing sentences. Trials are non existant.
If the fundamentalists in this country had their way, then we would be dealing with all kinds of lunacy as the law of the land. Just look at the lunacy that keeps happening from the Right. There are enough lunatics here that would have their way if they were allowed to.
It wasn't too long ago that women were imprisoned for fighting for their right to vote. It wasn't long ago that black people were completely controlled and killed if they didn't obey their masters. Not all of the lunacy in this country is religious based, but it has happened here just as much as in other places.
People of color and other religions still are killed by the KKK, white supremacists, Neo Nazis, etc. Our problems here haven't been solved.
The difference is that we have evolved "some" to get beyond those things, and in other places, they haven't yet. It's not a matter of difference. Rather, it's a matter of degree of the same issues.