URGENT ACTION from European Womens Lobby- Woman facing imminent stoning in Iran

Woman facing imminent stoning in Iran

Dear EWL members,

We have been alerted that a woman, Kobra Najjar, is facing execution by stoning as punishment for adultery, after having been forced by her husband to enter into prostitution. Adultery is criminalised in the Penal Code of Iran, and is the only crime in the penal code that proscribes stoning as punishment.

EWL calls its members to take action in order to stop the stoning of Kobra Najjar and others in her situation, and call for her immediate release.

With this sentence of stoning as punishment for adultery, and similar verdicts, Iran is in breach of international human rights law. This explicitly concern obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (art. 7), and states that “In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes”.(art. 6.2)

For more information and background about this action: http://equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_2902_en.html.

At the EWL Secretariat, we have sent a letter to the Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Head of the Judiciary, Ministry of Justice in Iran, calling for the immediate release of Kobra Najjar; for the end of stoning as punishment for adultery, and for a review of Iranian legislation to remove regulations and provisions that discriminate against women. The following link provides some contact information: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Iran/Iran.html.