Stop stoning Madina!
Stop stoning Madina!
The Taliban have been ruling Afghanistan again for three years now.
After the end of the NATO mission and the head-over-heels withdrawal of the USA, the Taliban declared themselves the new government of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021. Since then, women have lost all their rights. One woman is now even to be stoned to death for alleged extramarital sex.
The Stoning of Soraya M.
A young woman looks with fear at a crowd of men standing in a large circle around her. At any moment, one of the men could throw the first stone at her. And then it happens: a stone hits the woman on the forehead, her head is thrown backwards, then forwards, blood drips onto her white dress. She tries to avoid the next stone. But before the men throw the stones, they have buried the woman in a hole in the ground. There is no escape. There is also no mercy. From now on, the men will keep throwing stones at the woman's head until she is dead.
The scene from the 2008 feature film “The Stoning of Soraya M.” is based on a true story. Soraya, who was forced into marriage as a girl, was in her husband's way when he wanted to enter into a new marriage. He therefore accused her of adultery. The film by Cyrus Nowrasteh can be seen in full length and with English subtitles on YouTube, as well as in a short summary. In one sequence, Soraya's aunt desperately pleads for mercy for her niece - and then has to watch her agonizing death.
The point of stoning is to inflict the worst possible pain on the condemned person until death occurs. The stones must therefore not be larger than the throwing hand in order to delay the death of the condemned person. The man is buried in a hole in the ground up to his belt, the woman up to her chest. Men thus have a better chance than women of freeing themselves from the hole in the ground. Those who succeed in doing so are released from the punishment - if they have confessed. However, if he is convicted by witnesses, he is returned to the pit for execution.
Stoning is an ancient ritual law that goes back to pre-Islamic traditions. Even in the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, stoning is considered a punishment for necromancy, blasphemy and adultery. The punishment was also known in classical antiquity. However, it has only survived in the Islamic world, mainly as a symbolic stoning of the devil during the pilgrimage to Mecca.
A video, which according to an Iranian resistance group was smuggled out of the country, shows the stoning of two men in Iran. The video was presented at a press conference in Bonn in 2016.
In Afghanistan, stoning was a widespread punishment under the first Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001. It was officially banned in 2013, but after taking power three years ago, the Taliban announced that they would reintroduce the public stoning of women as a punishment for adultery. A woman named Madina is now to meet this cruel end.
Stop the stoning of Madina!
The main Taliban court in the Shulgara district of Balkh province has sentenced Madina to stoning for an extramarital affair, Afghan activists write on Facebook. The co-defendant, an alleged lover, denied the extramarital affair and was sentenced to a “discretionary punishment”, which presumably means flogging. In an open letter, the activists appeal to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other institutions to stand up for Madina and prevent her stoning to death.
We, the social and civil movements of Afghanistan, urgently call on all countries, especially international human rights organizations, to pressure the Taliban and not allow a woman in this century to be punished with the most severe and abhorrent act of inhumanity based on a forced confession.
Only those who have not followed the country's history will be surprised that stoning is to take place again in Afghanistan. Because even during the twenty years under US and NATO supervision, there have been public stonings in Afghanistan - despite the official ban. These were even reported internationally. Two examples:
February 2022: A woman and a man were stoned to death for an extramarital affair in the province of Badakhshan in north-eastern Afghanistan.
November 2015: In the province of Ghor in central Afghanistan, 19-year-old Rukshana was stoned to death and her lover flogged.
March 2015: 27-year-old Farkhunda was lynched by a mob in Kabul - with stones and kicks to her head; she was run over by a car and set on fire. A man had accused her of burning a Koran. The actress Leena Alam played Farkhunda in a theater production that recreates her death.
Women in Afghanistan are no longer allowed to study or work. Forced marriage is the order of the day. More and more girls and women feel trapped, see no future for themselves and only one way out: suicide.
The story of one of these resigned and lost women is described on Facebook. I hope to be able to find out whether this is a true story or fiction. And also who wrote the story.
Story of a sweet flower
Shirin Gul, a girl from the heart of the mountains, lived in a small village; a village where every corner was decorated with pure and beautiful nature, but behind these beauties, there were untold pains. Sweet flower, with eyes full of dreams and a pure heart, had big dreams in her heart; dreams that would never come true.
Life in the village was simple, but behind this simplicity, there were old and heavy customs; customs that often fell on the shoulders of innocent girls. Sweet flower was not excluded from this bitter fate. At the age when she had just smelled the fragrance of life, she married a 65-year-old man - forced by her family and at the request of rotten traditions.
This forced marriage for the sweet flower was nothing but a chain on her arms and legs. She who had once looked to the future with hope and desire, now saw herself imprisoned in a cage whose keys were held by others. Her days passed with sighs and regret, and her nights were sinking into a bitter and endless silence. No one understood her pain, no one heard her silent screams.
Sweet flower, in the silence of the village, was alone. Her old husband never understood her, and with each passing day, life became darker for the sweet flower. Her endless days were filled with hidden tears that no one saw, and smiles that she forced to imprint on her lips. But her heart could not hold it anymore. It was not possible for her to endure this life; a life she had never wanted.
On one of those cold and quiet nights in the village, when everyone was asleep and only the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, the sweet flower made her decision. She could no longer carry the burden of this life. The pain she carried in her heart was deeper than she could bear. She went down the last road that seemed to give her freedom - a ring that would end her life.
The sweet flower, in that dark night, freed herself from this cruel life. She hung herself on a stick and wrote the bitter end of the story with hands full of hidden tears. The next morning, the villagers found her lifeless body; a girl, who was once full of passion and life, now drowned in eternal silence.
Sweet Flower is no more, but her sad story remains in the hearts of the villagers forever; the story of a girl who fell victim to unfair traditions and, in the end, sought the freedom she never got. She is now at peace. But she will forever be missed in the hearts of those who knew her. Her story reminds everyone that sometimes silence can be a scream that can never be heard.
Thi text has first been published on my blog in German. The story of Sweet Flower has been translated on Facebook from the Persian original and modified by me.
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