WUNRN
Equality Now Update: Women's
Action 29.2 - IRAN
July 2008
Background - March 2007: http://www.equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_2901_en.html
Iran: Kobra Najjar Faces Imminent Execution by Stoning for Prostitution
Equality Now is
urgently concerned about Kobra Najjar, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by
stoning for adultery who lost her final appeal for amnesty. Iranian women’s
rights activists working on her case report that Kobra has exhausted all
domestic legal remedies and that her execution by stoning could happen any
time.
Kobra is a victim of domestic violence who was forced into prostitution by her abusive husband in order to support his heroine addiction. He was murdered by one of Kobra’s “clients” who sympathized with her plight. Kobra has already served 8 years in prison as an accessory to her husband’s murder. The man who murdered her husband also served 8 years in prison and is now free after paying blood money and undergoing 100 lashes, while Kobra faces imminent stoning to death for adultery - the prostitution her husband forced upon her.
Equality Now is also concerned about recent reports of seven other women and one man, all accused of adultery sentenced to death by stoning, whose executions are also reported to be possible at any time. In Iran, adultery is the only crime punishable by stoning.
Stoning violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Iran is a state party. The ICCPR clearly prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. It also limits the imposition of the death penalty “only for the most serious crimes.” No criminal or other act warrants violent and inhumane punishments such as flogging and stoning. Moreover, adultery is a private act and should not incur criminal punishment. Protection from arbitrary or unlawful interference under the ICCPR has been found by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to include consensual sexual activity between adults in private.
Equality Now asks that supporters write to the Iranian officials given at the WEBSITE LINK:
http://www.equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_2902_en.html
calling for Kobra’s immediate release, the commutation of all sentences of death by stoning and the prohibition by law of all cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments in accordance with Iran’s obligations under the ICCPR. Urge the officials also to initiate a comprehensive review of the Civil and Penal Codes of Iran to remove all provisions that discriminate and perpetuate discrimination against women, including those regarding adultery and fornication, in accordance with Iran’s own constitutional provision for equality before the law.