SIKENEH MOHAMEDI ASHTIANI & WOMEN'S "RIGHTS" UNDER ISLAM: AMERICAN FEMINISTS, WHERE ARE YOU?

Sikeneh Mohamedi Ashtiani

Sikenah Mohamedi Ashtiani, after years in prison, is still under a death sentence in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Iran, you might recall, as a stalwart defender of human rights, recently tried unsuccessfully to obtain membership on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. 

A widow with two children, Ms. Ashtiani was charged with adultery, even though her supposed offense occurred after the death of her husband.  Originally sentenced by a lower court in Azerbaijan during 2006,  Ashtiani was punished with 99 lashes, in the presence of her teenage son.

Several months later, the case was reopened by a higher court, which eventually sentenced Ms. Ashtiani to death by stoning, even though, as a Turkish speaker, Ashtiani could not comprehend the court proceedings, which were conducted in Farsi. Perhaps reacting to demonstrations in Europe, Iran took a more "lenient" position, raising the possibility that Ms. Ashtiani might have her sentence commuted to death by hanging.

Not many Americans viewed the film "The Stoning of Sorayah M.," which was produced from a book of the same title by the French-Iranian journalist and war correspondent Freidone Salebjam.  The true story recounts a visit by Salebjam to Iran, during which his car broke down in a remote village.  While waiting for repairs, Salebjam was approached by the aunt of a young mother and wife who, a few years previously, had been buried to the waist in the village square and suffered death by stoning. Salebjam was informed by the aunt how Sorayah M. (the stoning victim) had endured the plots of a husband who had wanted to rid himself of her in order to marry a younger woman, without any subsequent financial obligations to to Sorayah and her children.  With the help of the local mullah  and the village mayor, trumped up charges were brought against Sorayah, who then experienced the ultimate horror of Sharia law. 

Encouraged by Sorayah's aunt, Salebjam eventually realized that Sorayah's only hope for justice was to tell the world of her martyrdom.  Barely escaping from the village elders, Salebjam eventually returned to France, where he was able to publish "The Stoning of Sorayah M."

In 2009, Salebjam's book finally made its way to the silver screen.  Although it was honored by the Toronto Film Festival, the film never played to large audiences in the U.S.  Nevertheless, it is a film of great emotion and reveals what apparently many Americans are unaware of:  namely, that women in many Muslim countries are subject to the most depraved and nefarious of legal systems which stem from Sharia law, law that not only tyrannizes and represses them but, on occasion, subjects them to the brutality of stoning.

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From the standpoint of one who spent several years in a Muslim country and one who is also grateful for the foresight of our Founders and for the precious guarantees in our Constitution, the book and film will, hopefully, eventually have a wider audience.  Perhaps those most in need of Sorayah's story are American feminists and their liberal allies in the Democratic Party's "progressive" leadership, who seem to take pleasure in branding those who would question the wisdom of Muslim influence in the U.S. as "Islamophobes."  Looked at another way. it would seem that the current administration and many of its followers in Washington are suffering from a severe case of "Islamophilia," which has so beguiled them that they are even unable to bring themselves to utter the dreaded words of "Islamic terrorism."

Perhaps it is not so hard to believe that a country which goes by the oxymoronic name of "Islamic Republic" can prescribe such atrocious penalties.  But it is difficult to believe that an American government would continue to seek a relationship that would have any value with the likes of Ahmaddinejad and the mad mullahs in Tehran.

Certainly, one would never wish to totally bring to an end the immigration of a single group into the U.S., for we should welcome any and all who come to these shores with a desire to work and to meld with our country's language, traditions, and culture and who arrive with a validated appreciation of our political institutions and our Constitution.  That being said, it also goes without saying that we are truly involved in a war with a world-wide network of Islamic terrorists.  It is only logical, therefore, that American immigration policies should reflect this reality, and any individuals seeking to enter this nation from Muslim lands should be subject to intense scrutiny.