(Sorry for the thread hi-jack..)
In 2002, BBC News wrote:27 December, 2002
Iran stops stoning of women adulterers
Iran has halted stoning as a form of capital punishment for women, a senior judiciary official in Iran has been quoted as saying.
The head of the judiciary is reported to have instructed judges not to implement the sentence [..]
In practice, although the stoning of adulteresses remains on the statute books, it has become extremely rare.
There were two cases in the first half of 2001, but they were the first for many years and there have not been any reported since.
I have few kind words for the hardliners who, since the last elections, have regained full political control over the country, and even less (if possible) for their views on women. But I also think that many Westerners (or Americans) have an image of Teheran as a kind of Taliban-type stronghold, where women have to walk around in burqas and cant leave the house except in the company of a man. Perhaps thats because - as that BBC report noted in December 2002, at least:
Quote:Last year's stonings were practically the only news about Iran carried by some Western newspapers.
Now, that will have changed since, but still, when discussion is of Iran, I'm always torn into two directions: lashing at the Iranian conservatives for their hateful views and politics, or countering the sometimes somewhat cartoonesque perceptions of Iran as The Taliban Empire Returns..