Sunday, August 09, 2009

The Stoning of Soraya Manutchehri

This story is one that I learned in Anthropology. Years ago a young 13 year old girl was traded for marriage to a twenty-year-old ex-convict. She gave birth to 9 children by the time she was 33. In her marriage, she endured extreme physical and emotional abuse.

Years later, her husband had met and decided to marry a 14 year old girl. Since polygamy is legal in their country, he could simply have married the new model in addition to continuing his marriage with Soraya. However, what the husband decided to do instead was to get rid of the old one so that he would not have to pay support. He accused Soraya of infidelity. Soraya was found guilty on the count of adultery with only the accusation of her husband and testimony of her husband's cousin.

Being put to death by stoning consists of being buried waste deep in a pit. Stones are then hurled at the victim. The stones cannot be too small, so as not to cause enough damage nor too big that death should come too soon. Although, you would believe that this type of archaic torture occurred 2000 years ago, it happened in the last decade. Soraya Manutchehri was put to death by stoning. This story should be repeated a million times until stoning to death is outlawed in every country.
http://thestoning.com/

Soraya was just one story, of thousands of women put to death by stoning. Another was of a young Somalian girl who was raped by a group of military men. When she went to the commander to report her rape, she was accused of adultery and put to death by stoning. She was 13.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/child-of+-13-stoned-to-death-in-somalia-20081031

To help protect the rights of women and to stop the torture and execution of women go to http://www.amnesty.org/en/how-you-can-help .