Stoning is designed to cause maximum suffering. It generally takes between 20 minutes and two agonising hours to kill someone. Those sentenced to death are more likely to be poor and marginalised, particularly women.
And as you read this, 14 people in Iran are at risk of this inhumane death.
Stoning is mandatory under Iranian law for men and women convicted of ‘adultery while married’. The Penal Code explains in chilling detail how to carry out the punishment, from how deeply to bury the victim in the ground to the size of the stones to use: not so large as to kill too quickly, not so small as to cause too little hurt. The practice of stoning as punishment for adultery continues in Iran, despite a government-issued moratorium on the practice in 2002, and a recommendation in 2009 by the Legal and Judicial affairs Committee to remove stoning from the Iranian Penal Code.
Now is a crucial opportunity to stop the barbaric practice of stoning for adultery, as the Iranian authorities are currently reviewing the country’s Penal Code – including whether execution by stoning should be retained in the Code.
Click here to email Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran – asking for stoning to be stopped TODAY!