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Women Being Sent to the Gallows in Alarming Numbers in Iran

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Many Were Child Brides Hanged for Murder of Abusive Husbands From Whom There Was No Protection  December 18, 2024 — Amidst a huge surge in executions in the Islamic Republic— 862 so far in 2024, the highest per capita execution rate globally—the Iranian authorities are now increasingly including women in those it sends to the gallows. Since the start of 2024, Iran has executed at least 29 women. More executions of women may have taken place that are unknown.

Stoning is not Shariah, says Qatar scholar

Doha: An argument in a Qatari magazine that the stoning of adulterous married husbands or wives was not supported by Islamic Shariah (law) is set to ignite a heated debate in the country and well beyond.

In an interview published by posh magazine Al Dana on May 1 in the Qatari capital Doha, Shaikh Isam Talimah said that stoning was a Jewish tradition that was initially taken up by Muslims, but insisted that it was later replaced with lashing.

The scholar said that the Quran, the holy book of Muslims, never prescribed stoning as punishment for adultery and that the punishment prescribed by the Shariah is 100 lashes to the adulterer and the adulteress in public.

The stoning issue was a matter of interpretations by Muslims.

“Those who claim that there were verses that initially mentioned stoning, but were later changed are of course totally and completely wrong,” he told the magazine. “The verse on zina (sex outside marriage) in the Quran is very clear and it stipulates lashing the man and the woman equally. The resort by some people to stoning was to reinforce the punishment, especially when there are high immoral risks, such as the proliferation of the cases of rape, pedophile or incest,” he said.

The magazine, chaired by Mohammad Bin Abdullah Al Attiya, anticipating a storm of reactions to the interview, said that it welcomed the views of those who opposed Shaikh Isam’s argument and that it would publish them.

Stoning as a form of capital punishment whereby a group of people throw stones at a person until death ensues was known in ancient times and is mentioned in historical reports.

Some Islamic scholars have had similar views to those of Shaikh Isam, arguing that under the rules of Shariah, the punishment for a married slave-girl is half of that given to free women.

Source: Gulf News, May 3, 2013

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