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Most of my life, I have written about stoning. The Islamic Republic of Iran and I have grown old together. Along with other activists, I continue to write about stoning and the Islamic Republic continues to carry it out.
In the 22 years that I practiced law in Iran, I have looked at and worked on numerous stoning cases. I can comfortably claim that, before the divorce between me and the Islamic Republic of Iran was finalized, or better yet before the Gentlemen (reformist and conservative alike) got together and forever cut off our relationship, I would roam the buildings of the Justice Ministry, searching for those accused of adultery. I would then represent them as a pro-bono counsel, hoping to figure out the reason behind the Judges' ruling for stoning. How would their conscience allow them to sleep at night?
In the best case scenarios, my defense would cause the verdict to change from "stoning" as punishment for adultery to "100 lashes" as punishment for fornication The changing of the verdict would be my certificate of success and would cause a stream of all kinds of people sentenced to stoning to my office. I will never forget one of them, who barged into my office wearing a tattered and torn chador, crying and saying: "For the love of God help me! I could not afford to hire a real, respectable attorney, so I have come to appeal to your sense of sympathy." I took a deep breath and hoped that God would give me more patience and the "real, respectable" attorneys more wealth.
Anyway, clients would come and go, and often I was able to change the charge of adultery to fornication. Thus, the fragile bodies of these poor and unfortunate Iranian women would be placed in the hands of the strong bodied men who had to lash them. Still, most of them were thankful.
The penniless adulterous people would inform those who shared their crime that there is a female lawyer who can stop stoning. But the female lawyer, who was me, was certain that as long as stoning, disembodiment, lashing and the many cases of killing were still included as forms of punishment in the "Islamic Penal Code" even the religious magistrate had no power, let alone the defense counsel. We are all aiding the staging of a play that was directed by the "Lawmaker." On the other hand, the Lawmaker couldn't care less about the matter. To him, the malcontent of those oppressed by such legal crimes was immaterial. He knew his responsibilities really well. He would instantly brand everything inhumane "Islamic" and force it on the masses under the flag of Islam. Or perhaps, he thought: "People get what they deserve."
Many years ago, no one would approach the issue of stoning without first devising a will. Shirin Ebadi and I eventually approached it slowly and carefully. Everyone looked at us as wondrous creations and thought we were losing our minds. At least in my case, the presumptions were correct and effective. The times have changed. Stoning is still an enforceable punishment in the Iranian Codes. The only difference is now, the women rights activists can collect signatures via the Internet in an attempt to stop stoning of the accused women. When looked at closely, one will see that this is a victory in its own right, deserving to be valued. For this purpose, I'd like to retell one of my many experiences regarding stoning.
In 1991 when the religious magistrates were slowly becoming more modern and would sometimes receive the female attorneys, one day after the investigation session on a stoning case ended, I approached the pleasant young judge, who was wearing a black turban. I paid my compliments and then broke the ice and said:
"Haj Agha, don't you think this cruel and inhumane law of stoning should be changed?"
The Haji bit his lips so hard they turned bright red. Then he gave me a look of compassion and pity and thus made me realize that not only I am "the weak" and "half witted" sex, but also stupid and poorly learned. Since he was by nature a patient person, he did not lose his temper and said calmly:
"My sister, don't you utter this statement somewhere else! Stoning is a verdict set by God. The earthly human cannot change a verdict set by God."
I didn't give up. Finally I had found a judge I didn't fear who was patient and a cleric. So I got off my chest all that had been piling up throughout the years. I said and said until he lowered his head and whispered in my ear:
"In spite of all this, it is possible. In special situations when the interests of Islam are at stake, this or any other verdict can be suspended. But this is a job suited for high ranking clergies. You should not involve yourself in this matter."
Excitedly I asked: "What do you mean, suspend a verdict?"
Once more, he gave me a wise man-to-the-fool look and said: "It means the legality of the verdict is still recognized but it is no longer carried out."
Like an idiot, I said: "You mean forever? Well that's great. Why not suspend it sooner? Why not change the law now?"
Again, he bit his lips and tried to swallow his mocking laughter. He then said:
"My sister, why don't you understand that a law taken from the Shari'a cannot be suspended forever? When we say suspending the verdict, we mean that the execution of the verdict needs to be halted temporarily due to the necessities and conditions in place. So then no one will be stoned. But this is not a permanent halt. Whenever the necessities and conditions are taken care of, the verdict will once more be executable. There are rules and conditions applied to everything."
This time, I said nothing. Just hung my head down and left.
Many years passed. The European Union intended to increase its economic trade with Iran and so tried to use its influence to, as they thought, wipe this black mark off of its trade partner's record. The EU intended to calm the general opinion of the European citizens who sometimes become soft hearted and complain to their governments and ask them to stop trading with governments that promote and execute stoning. For a couple of years the human rights groups would travel to Iran and meet with some Iranian judicial officials and governmental organs. Finally it was announced that Iran has verbally promised the EU that stoning will no longer be executed in Iran. Of course the promise never meant that the law requiring stoning as the punishment would be changed. The EU was simple minded like I was and were fooled by the other side of the agreement who were ideologically on the same page with that Haji I spoke to years earlier.
I think it was the years 2000 and 2001. The EU was ecstatic, thinking that it had done the unthinkable.
When the news was spread throughout the world the memory of my talk with the Haji came back to me. This time I bit my lips too. I was no longer an unlearned idiot. I was somewhat of a clergy myself. I knew that once the necessities change, the verdict will again become alive. Or in truth will take life, in the cruelest way possible.
Soon what I thought happened. Now the verdict that had been halted under pressure from Europe and because keeping the expediency of the regime demanded it (read keeping the large incomes of the economic trade and brokerage), and was only being carried out quietly in the small cities, is once again becoming legally executable. It is said that about 6-7 people are en route to stoning and are approaching the stoning ditch. Until the defenders of stoning face the unified and determined masses, the current conditions will continue and they will keep presenting their criminal acts as legal. The 6th parliament and its reformist majority came and is already gone but stoning remained in the Iranian Law and the reformist parliament didn't even dare speak of it. Now the 7th parliament and its extremist majority is in place and is using all its might to compete with the female clothing industry around the world. It says, with a lot of pride too, that soon fashion styles will be exported from Iran to the rest of the world. In truth it has been years that the stoning documentaries have been exported to the rest of the world and raised hatred towards Iranians.
In the midst of all this the women rights activists who are constantly summoned to the revolutionary court are using every little chance they can get in the third decade of the revolution and have turned into signature machines.
Since we know our strength is no match for the criminals, we constantly sign pleading letters and are happy by the mere fact that we are still alive. Even though I have on occasion signed such letters at the request and collaboration of friends inside and outside of Iran, I value my signature very little since so far I have not been able to break the barrier of the cruel and inhumane laws.
Still, maybe these signature machines can sometimes drag a man or a woman out of the ditch and save the person's life, but it won't save the society. However, the opposition is becoming more and more structured which can only lead to something prosperous. The defense attorneys joining forces and targeting stoning as a symbol of insult to human integrity is a wise and brave move, and about time for it too.
This article was published on Women's Field website on 12th of November 2006.
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