Urgnet Call to Save Ashraf
Kalhori
BOSTON, MA- A 37- year -old woman named
Ashraf Kalhori has been convicted of adultery and crimes against morality in
Iran. She is facing imminent execution by being buried up to her chest and
stoned to death.
Ashraf was arrested 5 years ago and has spent all this
time in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. According to her lawyer, Shadi
Sadr, Ashraf's appeal has been turned down and her verdict will be carried out
in two weeks.
The Islamic
Republic of Iran's law specfies that the penalty for adultery under Article 83
of the penal code, called the Law of Hodoud is flogging (100 lashes of the whip)
for unmarried male and female offenders. Married offenders may be punished by
stoning regardless of their gender, but the method laid down for a man involves
his burial up to his waist, and for a woman up to her neck (article 102).
Article 104 states, with reference to the penalty for adultery, that the stones
used should "not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes, nor
should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones".
Currently there are 8 women in Iranian
prisons who have been sentenced to death by the cruel punishment of
stoning.
The Iranian regime along
with Ahmadinejad must be held responsible and condemned for the gross violations
of Human Rights of the Iranian people. The United States and European Union
should pay attention to the crimes committed against humanity by the
fundamentalist regime ruling Iran. They should not ignore the suffering of the
people under the rule of the Mullahs only to advance their economic
agendas.
Women's Forum Against
Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI) calls upon the international community, human
rights organizations and the United Nations to fight for Ashraf and the other
eight women and stop Tehran's regime from killing them so brutally.
Women's Forum
Against Fundamentalism in Iran, (WFAFI), is a Boston based non-profit
organization, founded in 2004. WFAFI's tasks ranges from raising public
awareness, conducting research projects and initiating outreach programs -- to
policy discussions and analysis.
email:
press@wfafi.org