On July 11 Maryam Ayoobi was stoned to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ayoobi, a mother in her late twenties, was imprisoned a year ago and sentenced to death for committing adultery.
The International Committee Against Stoning had organised a campaign to save Ayoobi and condemn the Iranian regime. Thousands of protest letters were sent to the Iranian government. Despite this, Ayoobi was still murdered.
With Ayoobi's death, the number of stonings during the four-year presidential reign of the "moderate reformist" Khatami has risen to 17. Eleven of the victims have been women. The regime stoned a 35-year-old woman in May, after eight years' imprisonment, for her alleged role in pornographic films. She professed her innocence right up to her death. A 38-year-old woman, Robabeh, charged with adultery, was stoned to death in the same month after receiving 50 lashes. Her unnamed male accomplice has reportedly been sentenced to 100 lashes and death by hanging.
Stoning is barbaric. The person is wrapped from head to foot in white shrouds and buried in a pit. A woman is buried to her armpits, while a man is buried to his waist. A truckload of rocks is brought to the site and court-appointed officials — and in some cases ordinary citizens approved by the authorities — carry out the stoning. The stoning is usually open to the public, and in many cases the victim's families are forced to watch. Stoning is used against women more often than against men.
Victims are guaranteed a slow, tortuous death because the stones are chosen to be large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately. If the condemned person manages to survive, they will be imprisoned for as long as 15 years but will not be executed. If they manage to escape from the stoning they can go free.
Death by stoning is not the only death sentence in Iran. Since January, 75 people have been hanged or sentenced to death for crimes such as drug addiction and trafficking.
Iranian women face discrimination and violence on a number of fronts: since 1979 women have been banned from appearing publicly in sports centres in the presence of men; women cannot study overseas without the permission of a male guardian; it is prohibited for women and men who are not married to each other to be in close contact in public; and a woman's testimony in court is worth half that of a man's.
In February, 1994, a 14-year-old girl set herself on fire in response to being forced by her parents to marry a 42-year-old man. In Iran, girls are considered adults at the age of nine. Early marriages are common.
There has been a substantial rise in the rape and murder of women in Tehran. In the six months up to October, 2000, 30 victims of rape were murdered. On November 18, 2000, a young woman accused of "loose morals" was beaten and burned alive by her father and brother.
In May, 1993, security forces in Tehran and other major cities arrested women who were wearing clothing in public that is "incompatible with Islamic regulations". This usually means women who are not properly covered with a veil or who wear makeup. Even now, women can be fined or imprisoned for violating Islamic dress codes.
Dress code violations can be punishable by whipping, but more frequently these days women are warned and then released after paying a fine and signing a commitment to respect the code. If a woman is arrested during a demonstration she is doubly punished.
Despite suffering such human rights abuses, Iranian asylum seekers find it difficult to gain refuge in Australia. According to the United Nations and the Australian government, the Iranian regime has a better human rights reputation than countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet on-shore application approval rates in 1999 were 36% for Iranian asylum seekers, compared with 80-90% for those from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Australian government does not treat persecution based on gender as seriously as other forms of persecution. Federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock has ridiculed the notion that women should be granted refugee status on the basis that particular governments do not protect them domestic violence.
Yet women frequently die in "honour killings" carried out by family members. They face hanging or stoning for "crimes" such as adultery.
The attitude of the Australian government is callous and a grave injustice against Iranian women. It is an insult to all women whose experiences of violence and persecution are still not given equal weight.
BY SARAH STEPHEN