World

Celebrities Call for Release of Iran Woman Who ‘Confessed’ to Husband’s Murder

Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:11am by Jonathon M. Seidl
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LONDON (AP) — Celebrities including Robert Redford, Robert de Niro, and Sting have called on Iran to release a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

In an open letter published Monday, more than 80 actors, artists, musicians, academics and politicians said that “Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has suffered enough.”

Signatories include actor Colin Firth, artist Damien Hirst, Nobel literature laureates Wole Soyinka and V.S. Naipaul, British opposition leader Ed Miliband and former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner. They say Ashtiani has already spent five years in prison and received 99 lashes.

They called on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to release her along with her son and lawyer, who are also imprisoned.

The letter was published on the front page of The Times of London newspaper.

Ashtiani, 43, was convicted in 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men after the murder of her husband the year before and was sentenced at that time to 99 lashes. She was later convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned.

Iran also says she has confessed to complicity in her husband’s murder.

After coming under intense demands from Western politicians and rights groups to free Ashtiani, Iran put her stoning sentence for adultery on hold in July for review by the country’s supreme court.

Stoning was widely imposed in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran’s judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are often converted to other punishments. The last known stoning was carried out in 2007.

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Comments (37)

pamela kay
Posted on December 14, 2010 at 3:26am
Was this part of the conference call from the WH to the National Endowment of the Arts? I am so sure Irans leader will be so impressed by those mentioned from Hollywood that he will drop all charges and ignore sharia law just to make Hollywood happy. Will Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter be far behind, or maybe Jesse Jackson? The woman may have confessed because she was forced to do so. I do have great sympathy for her or any other woman in the mideast that suffer under the muslim religion. It is a way of life that I will never understand. And pray we will never have to abide by here in this country.
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isobamamadd
Posted on December 14, 2010 at 2:03am
Notice There is no Outrage from the WH . Wonder why, Are not these people Obie s Comrades
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MUDFLAPS
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 9:41pm
Well, if movie stars and rock stars say let her go then by all means she must be let go. These are the smartest people in the world because they can remember a line in a movie.
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KRRSTA
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 6:16pm
I wonder what this woman endured before she “confessed” to her husband’s murder. She’s not being stoned for the murder, but for the adultery. She’s already received 99 lashes, and I guarantee she wasn’t being hit with a piece of yarn. We should be horrified and angry and revolted by this situation, and the hundreds of women going through similar situations throughout the Muslim world. I hate to say it, but I’m with the celebrities on this one, and I’m usually thinking that they should shut up and do their jobs and not speak every little tidbit on their minds. She certainly has suffered, probably more than we will ever know. We have a Constitution in this country that protects us against excessive punishments. They have no such thing in Iran. If a very public outcry is enough to stay the hand of the Iranian government, I’ll be surprised. But who are we as fellow human beings if we stand silently and let atrocities continue because it’s “none of our business”?

“A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.”
-Winston Churchill
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dontbotherme
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 4:52pm
Which one of these celebrities is willing to switch places with her? Words are cheap. God help those people. They need Christ’s salvation.
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tranymike
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 11:17am
i can’t belive i was just defending iran and muslims to make a point. i got stop now
god bless glenn and all of you
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kenia110
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 10:18am
Often, these celebrity interventions do a lot more harm than good. What would you think if you were the Ayatollah and some (in your view) Godless, hedonistic, performers were to implore you as to the justness or correctness of an action? You might be more persuaded that your original decided course was in fact the right one.

Seriously, a mere actor, no matter how famous, would not convince me.
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tranymike
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 10:04am
see thats what im talking about. you belive that is not adultery and i belive is not to but the iranens belive it is and the point is they can belive what ever they want because it’s there country. did they make her say she was involved in the murder. we will never know i understand as a chistian we should help them and show them are ways but to interfear is wrong just like when the mormen nocks at your door as soon as you tell them your a chistian they move on to the next house well i think we should do the same for the muslims say thanks for your time and move on to the next house
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justme72
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 9:37am
As Christians it IS our business to get involved and make Christian Churches in EVERY country. No one said she herself killed her husband, she said (in a statement that I believe probably was co-erced) That she was somehow involved in his murder. I believe they forced her to make that statement so that they would get less backfire for stoning her. By the way, if she had an iilicit “affair” AFTER her husbands death……..how is that adultery?? Fornifacation…..yes….adultery ……no
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hempstead1944
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 9:14am
Adultry and false statements…..two things celebs can relate to…….
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BuddyAbner
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 9:08am
Thank goodness for Celebrities, now maybe this woman will be released…
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Tri-ox
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:40am
Why are non-muslim American celebrities worried about the fate of a female-muslim-terror-cultist in Iran? If they are truly concerned, they should work to eradicate islam – problem solved.
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Silversmith
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:37am
Not sure how to feel about this woman’s case. Stoning for adultery is wrong. It’s way to severe a punishment for that act. But my question is: How was she complicit in the murder of her husband? That’s not right either. If she contracted his killing then she is on her own as far as I’m concerned.

Silversmith
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- untameable-kate
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 9:02am
  Agree partly with you. She has been saying her confession was coerced and I don’t doubt it. Can you imagine her life in an Iranian prison as an adulteress and murderer? If she did indeed conspire to kill her husband, WHY? knowing the punishment to come? Stoning is such a horrible way to be put to death it should only be used in very extreme cases (or not EVER). Men who rape children (female) are not put to death by stoning nor are men who beat their wives to death.
  Report Post »
- Silversmith
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 9:54am
  I hear you Kate, and I really don’t think stoning is a choice ever. I also know of the inequities between the genders in Islam. I am sadly familiar with Sharia’s views on honor etc. However, in her position, I think saying that a confession is coerced would be a matter of course. It may very well be! But it seems that everyone many miles, and cultures, away, have decided that she is an innocent victim without any idea of her actions or intents. Is she suffering? I’ll bet yes. But certainly so are most in prison there. And aside from disagreeing completely with the ideas held by Islamic justice, I don‘t think anyone here is in a position to decide much of anything about this one woman’s guilt or innocence.
  
  When a government treats it’s people with such inequity, it’s hard to make a judgement about who is guilty, the criminal or the system.
  
  Silversmith
  Report Post »
- aLinedog
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 12:18pm
  We know how highly women rate in the Muslim religion. We know that Islam does not suffer women to exist for any reason save breeding. It is historical fact that a daughter of Islam’s value is determined by what she can be “traded” or married off for. It is also known that they (islamicists) have no respect for life or dignity.
  Considering the above and the history of Islamic prisons and their treatment of prisoners, we can conclude that this woman’s confession was forced.
  So, she was jailed and punished for cheating on her dead husband? And then, once the regime realized that wasn‘t going over as well as they’d have liked, they coerce a confession of murder.
  And they say Infidels are corrupt. I hope I am awake and talking to a muslim when Jesus comes back. That would be the sweetest irony.
  God made Adam then Eve. Man was made in God’s image. If man invents something, the second version is always an improvement. So, one can deduce that either women are the better sex, they are identical in value to the specie, or God isn’t as clever as man.
  Considering all points, I tend to go with the former. But then, I’m biased. I prefer females to males in pretty much every facet of daily activity. And if you don’t agree with me then you are a racist, heterophobic, islamaphobic, chauvanist. Do the world a favor and promptly schedule a lobotomy.
  -line
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psykeskaos
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:36am
And next week Sean Penn or some idiot will speak out against past US policies in regard to Islam.
It took them this long to realize this was happening? It has been in the news for months now. I am not impressed by Hollywood posers. Most of them need to get out of politics and take acting lessons. Most of them suck now a days anyway.
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GeauxAlready
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:13am
Can you see the wish list for muslim kid at Christmas,

Dear Santa,
I want, a bomb making kit, a new sword to cut heads off, an IED, a new jihad robe, an infidel cookbook, and a big pile of rocks so I can stone my Pig Mother.

We should just stone the whole lot of them………………
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NickDeringer
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:00am
In a rare moment of courage I must applaud these Hollywood Narcissists. They have emerged from their limos and actually taken a look at how the rest of the world lives.
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- MCAinSTL
  Posted on December 15, 2010 at 1:07am
  But these are the same Hollywood liberals who call us “Islamophobes” when we say something bad about Sharia law.
  Report Post »
Thelandofthefree
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:46am
Hope about we trade Robert Redford, Robert de Niro, and Sting for this women. Sounds like a fair swap to me.
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VanGrungy
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:45am
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/11/20/graphic-anatomy-of-a-stoning/

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/001-adultery_punishment.htm

Unable to get around the fact that stoning adulterers is very much a part of Islam, apologists typically travel the familiar path of claiming that Christianity is no different. In this case, they could not be more wrong. Not only is the Old Testament rule of stoning anyone explicitly done away with by the example of Jesus (see John 8:1-11, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”) but the episode itself is proof that Christianity is not under the same law as Islam.

While the teachings and example of Jesus stand between Christians and Old Testament law, Muhammad skipped straight back to the harshest of rules (which even the Jews of his day were reluctant to enforce so literally, as Bukhari (6:60:79) makes clear). As with so much else – from forgiveness to waging war – the contrasting personal example set by Jesus and Muhammad with regard to killing adulterers could hardly be more different.

While many Muslims today do find the practice distasteful, there is simply no arguing that killing grown adults over consensual sex is firmly rooted in Islamic theology. In fact, according to this recent fatwa, merely denying that is appropriate to stone married adulterers in the modern age is a sign of apostasy.

==========

Stick that in your islam forgiving pinko pipes and smoke it…
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dizzyinthedark
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:43am
Well, at least the list here is ‘male’ not ‘female’ so they will have a better chance at being heard?. I wonder if Behar and Goldberg (and most of America) get the message that it is muslims terrorizing their own and this is what they do to keep their own in line–terrorize.

Good luck here, wonder why our President and our Government isn’t coming out condemning this by adding their names to the list? Oh yeah, because they already know Iran could give a hoot what we say or think thanks to Barry knocking us down as a country.

Itoldyaso will be laughing his arss off and once again we will be made fools of.

Wake up Hollywood you and yours don’t matter anymore, don’t you get this! What you do, say and how you act is beginning to have no meaning to the majority of Americans and to the rest of the world. Go back to your mansions, go back to your primping, whining, WIGWAM lifestyle, and stay there. Stop fowling things up. You‘ve already made a mess with most of America’s minds, distorting what and how people should look like, think like and act like. For the most part, you have not done us or our children an honest service, rather you have disseminated non-truths of history regarding America, supported/paraded around radical actor/actresses that loathe America, but love making $$ here and living here.
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po-boy
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:38am
Wonderful religion. When a goat means more than a woman. Opps We must be tollerant.
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- untameable-kate
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:10am
  Apparently a womans life doesen’t mean that much more to the celebrities. Eighty signatures is all they could come up with????
  Report Post »
GeauxAlready
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:21am
Like thats gonna do alot of good.

Might as well drag it out, take it down to the river and hit it with a rock! You’ll get a bigger reaction………….
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Citizen
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:17am
poor heathen still wanting to stone each other when Christ offers forgiveness
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- Dandylyon
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 12:47pm
  I never thought I would agree with Iran on anything but the idea of saying this woman has suffered enough is ludicrous.SHE MURDERED SOMEONE!! to be with another man.
  
  Only something like this could come out of Hollywood……………………….and apparently The Blaze.
  Report Post »
- Rowgue
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 3:11pm
  There is no evidence that she killed anyone other than her “confession”. She has not stood trial for the murder, she was just declared guilty.
  Report Post »
po-boy
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:16am
Prisoner exchange. Give them Janeane Garofano, Robert Redford and Hanoi Jane even up.
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- Speak without Fear
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:23am
  Can we add……. Micheal Moore and Obama to that list of exchanges?
  Report Post »
- Thelandofthefree
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:48am
  Giving them Michael Moore would be awesome. I found a copy of his book dude wheres my country at the dollar store yesterday. I guess people we not buying his lies.
  Report Post »
- TXPilot
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:54am
  If we swap them Micheal Moore, I insist that the trade be done on a pound for pound basis. I figure we can save at least ten people that way
  Report Post »
- Speak without Fear
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:05am
  Exactly….lets throw in a couple of freebies. I would like to add……Helen and Joy(less) to that list.
  Report Post »
- C.C.D.
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 12:08pm
  No, that would be to easy on the people listed. I believe the Lord has bigger wrath for the folks that sway.
  Report Post »
- leumas
  Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:47pm
  What an IDEA ! Can we throw some others in there…, to “sweeten the deal ”? Randi Rhodes would be a good thing to trade away to the stoners. Her Screeeecccchhhhiiinnnngggg, Longuyland voice is enough to make wildlife jump off cliffs to their death. She is a BROWN woman.
  Report Post »
- pamela kay
  Posted on December 14, 2010 at 3:12am
  That’s funny! Kudos, and Merry Christmas!
  Report Post »

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