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Tag: stoning

  • Stoned To Death: Pregnant Woman Killed By Family

    Arranged marriages are common in Pakistan and the consequences of refusing a husband picked for a woman by her family are severe. A 25-year-old woman was recently stoned to death by her family outside of a courtroom in Pakistan after she chose to marry the man she loved instead of one her family had chosen for her.

    Stoning is common in Pakistan but still illegal. The brutality of this case has shocked everyone. Even worse, the woman was pregnant at the time and inevitably, her unborn child died during the incident as well.

    The woman’s father, two brothers and a former fiancé threw bricks at her repeatedly and although she was taken to the hospital after the attack, she died shortly after the incident.

    Although the woman was pregnant, the police are only charging the men who stoned the woman with one count of murder.
    Police are searching for the people involved in the stoning and all of them escaped except the woman’s father.

    Details about the events leading up to the stoning are unclear, but police believe that the woman’s family had registered a kidnapping case against the man she had planned to marry and she had come to court to argue that she was marrying him of her own free will.

    After the family left the courtroom, the stoning occurred in the streets. There were many witnesses but no reports of anyone trying to stop the stoning from happening.

    “This is a huge flaw in the law,” a police officer said. “We are really struggling on this issue.”

    It is not known if the man that the woman had hoped to marry was present during the stoning but he publicly vowed to get justice for his lover and was devastated by the loss of the woman and his unborn child.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Brunei Sharia Law Going Into Effect

    Hassanal Bolkiah, 67, The Sultan of Brunei, plans to begin enforcing Sharia law for Muslims and non-Muslims on Thursday, despite concerns from human rights campaigners and international watchdog groups. In the Arabic-speaking world, Sharia, also known as Islāmī qānūn, means the moral code and religious law of a prophetic religion.

    Sharia deals with many of the same topics addressed by secular law, including politics, crime and economics, as well as with personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, general etiquette and fasting. Punishments include amputation, beheading, flogging, stoning, blinding, severing of the spinal cord, burying alive, hanging, burning alive and crucifixion.

    Bolkiah warned that anyone who took to social media to protest his mandate might be prosecuted. “It is because of our need that Allah the Almighty, in all his generosity, has created laws for us, so that we can utilize them to obtain justice,” the Sultan commented. It would seem a Tweet might warrant some medium-strength flogging in Brunei under the impending the new laws.

    During a speech yesterday, Bolkiah explained how he would introduce Sharia in three phases – “Today I place my faith in, and am grateful to Allah the almighty, to announce that tomorrow, Thursday, May 1, 2014, will see the enforcement of sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases.” The phases are likely to begin with fines and jail sentences, and could graduate to crucifixion.

    Bolkiah, said to be worth roughly $20 billion, is likely going to see a problem with his ties to the U.K. The Sultan presently pays for a garrison of 1,000 British soldiers known as the Royal Gurkha Rifles, who are stationed in the Southeast Asian country. Great Britain’s Ministry of Defense had asked authorities in Brunei to clarify whether the new laws would have any impact on the their troops. The outcome of that communication has yet to be made public.

    Commenting on the Sultan’s new edict, Anicée Van Engeland, a lecturer in law at SOAS, University of London stated, “When rulers do this, it is usually for domestic political reasons.” Bolkiah said he wished to reduce the “challenges” of globalization, mainly the use of the internet.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Afghan Adulterers To Be Stoned In New Law

    Afghan Adulterers To Be Stoned In New Law

    Afghanistan’s sharia Islamic law committee is currently drafting a new punishment into law; adulterers will now be subject to being stoned to death in a public execution if they are caught. The same rule was in effect during the six years the Taliban was in power, and adulterers were either stoned or shot to death.

    According to Reuters, a “senior official” confirmed the upcoming law on Monday. Oddly enough, two adulterers near Kabul were captured over the weekend after escaping persecution by car. The two lovers then smashed the vehicle, at which point they were apprehended. The majority of townspeople in the province where the two were caught pushed for an immediate execution by stoning. The couple were ordered to be shot the next day, after the girl’s father authorized the shooting of “both man and woman.”

    In the new law, if one or both of the adulterers are married – and unanimously convicted – both people will be ordered to be killed by stoning. If the two are unmarried, their sentence is “whipping [by] 100 lashings.”

    Human rights and corruption agreements between Afghanistan and Norway caused the latter country to stop aid they had been supplying.

    Image courtesy Afghanistan Matters via Wikimedia Commons.

  • ‘Stoning Adulterers’ May Become Afghan Punishment

    Warning: Graphic Content in Video Below.

    Against public outcry (both inside and outside of Afghanistan) governmental representatives for the country are considering reinstating a punishment that many would like to see relegated to the history books under topics such as “cruel and unusual punishments” and “tortures of the past” in spite of the fact that other countries practice these forms of punishment. Afghanistan is now reviewing propositions to bring stoning back as a form of punishment for adulterers.

    According to the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, “It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment.”

    While many people in developed, civilized countries will admit that the inhumane option to stone another person does sound “shocking” this is only one of the possibilities. Unfortunately, other potential options sound nearly as Medieval as stoning, such as flogging.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Za1GcHwKI&list=PLlj3QhEiHKWZqChFQ6XweDSKxABsoXsz2

    The Guardian claims that public stoning may be considered and references a globally-undisclosed draft abstracted from an Afghan legal document that proposes penal revisions, which are presently being reviewed by the ministry of justice. Article 21 of the document states, “Men and women who commit adultery shall be punished based on the circumstances to one of the following punishments: lashing, stoning [to death].”

    Many see the recent considerations as barbaric and steps of a society regressing to more primitive time periods.

    Brad Adams said, “President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand.” However, deeper concerns have arisen about wasted resources originating from continued military efforts from outside countries (such as the United States) to instill a peaceful regime in Afghanistan since 2001. Public disgust is being vocalized in the midst of these recent penal propositions that seek to use physical tortures as methods for punishing crimes.

    [Image Via Wikimedia Commons]

  • 20-Year-Old Woman Sentenced to Death by Stoning in Sudan

    A 20-year-old woman in Sudan has been sentenced to death for adultery and is being held in Khartoum. Intisar Sharif Abdalla was sentenced by Ombada criminal court on April 22.

    Lawyers and activist groups are condemning the sentence, saying it is in violation of international standards of justice. Many think that Sudan may implement a stricter adherence to sharia, or Islamic law, after the secession of predominately non-Muslim South Sudan last year.

    The lawyers assigned to her case are preparing an appeal. Adballa is illiterate and Arabic is not her native tongue. Court proceedings were held in Arabic, as it is the main language in the overwhelmingly muslim nation.

    Lawyers who have met with Adballa say that she under severe psychological distress and in need of medical attention. “She’s in dire need of a psychiatrist because she appears to be in a state of shock from the social and family pressures she’s under,” said a lawyer assigned to her case.

    Abdalla is believed to be 20, but some reports claim she is younger. She is believed to be from one of the outlying tribal villages in Sudan, although reporters are unclear exactly where.

    Reuters notes that under Islamic law, floggings are common for crimes like consuming alcohol and adultery, but stonings are rare. The law is still listed under its statutes, however, and is a real threat to the this woman.

    In 2010, a Sudanese U.N. official was sentenced to flogging for wearing long pants. It is this sort of medieval barbarism that Sudan is becoming known for following the secession of the predominately Christian South Sudan.

    Abdalla’s case is being closely watched by organisations like The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), who say that even though she is undergoing the appeal process, her life is very much in danger.

    Floggings for wearing pants and death by stoning for extramarital sex – news like this should be a call to action for any and all who have diplomatic sway in this region.

    [source: Reuters]