Isn't stoning bad reguardless of the sex of the person? I agree that women in Iran have less legal rights, but shouldn't we be against the stoning of all 11 people, not just the 9 women?

Isn't stoning bad reguardless of the sex of the person? I agree that women in Iran have less legal rights, but shouldn't we be against the stoning of all 11 people, not just the 9 women?

I don't think anyone is saying stoning is only bad if women are at the receiving end, nor is anyone implying we should only be opposed to the stoning of women; the post and report simply points out that women comprise the majority of victims - a fact worth highlighting.

"Women are not treated equally with men under the law and by courts"

That's awful regardless of the punishment (though, obviously, stoning is horrific and disgusting). Justice should be blind. Blind to gender, race, religion, etc. I know it really isn't anywhere, but it should be. Everyone should be equal. This isn't just a gender thing, it's a human thing.

but, if it's in their culture to stone more women than men, then who are we to try to stop them? because we, as westerners, can't possibly sit in judgment. we don't understand their VALUES! umm. right...?

Sorry, just had some pent up relativist frustration there.

Discriminatory legal standards are inexcusable. However, stoning, per se, is not "specifically designed to increase the suffering of the victim," but derives from a tradition of communally exacted justice. Everyone in the community is supposed to contribute to the execution; and no one knows whose stone dealt the fatal blow, a process accomplished in American death chambers by redundent switches for lethal injection machines and electric chairs.

Backward? Perhaps. But less barbaric, in my opinion, than an execution carried out behind closed doors in the antiseptic confines of a Western prison. I think I can safely say that there would be far fewer executions in America if ordinary citizens were forced to wield the fatal instruments themselves. "Let he who is without sin..."

Of course, I have no idea if stonings in Iran are carried out by ordinary citizens or not, or under the watchful eye of Revolutionary Guards, which would defeat the purpose in either case. And whatever the punishments imposed by a legal system, it is only just that they be meted out equally, regardless of gender.

if you want to, and you can find it, there is a video out there of a stoning in evin prison in Tehran. One of my Farsi instructors showed it to me and it is quite horrific, almost impossible to believe what you're seeing.

This instructor was also a feminist though very much unlike most of the feminists I run into on a day to day basis, I think perhaps because of her very different upbringing and culutral experience. She also saw a stark lessening of her rights as the country transitioned from the Shah to the Ayatollah. The laws in Iran are not fair. They are unfair to women but also to religious minorities (they do exist there), other nationalities, homosexuals and so on.

It won't change for a long time though. Even if Tehran wanted to yield to internation pressures, only western Iran would adopt any of our legal practices. The gov't exerts very little control of the East.

While I would be thrilled to see a justice system based on equal protection for all enacted in Iran I doubt it would very closely resemble our system as there is a core set of beliefs and cultural attitudes that differ from ours. Thankfully Iranians are more progressive than their Arab neighbors but not to the point of western nations. Throw in the Islamic influence and they have a long way to go.