Why women need freedom from religion, item #3,985,431.
A Sudanese judge, Sami Ibrahim Shabo sentenced to death by stoning a young woman accused of committing adultery.
Intisar Sharif Abdalla, believed to be between 15 and 17 years of age (although prison authorities claim she is 20) was sentenced to death in accordance with Article 146 of the Sudanese criminal law albeit without legal representation.
The judgment was made on May 13, 2012 after just one hearing and came after an “admission of guilt” plea following torture and brutal beatings by Sharif’s brother who instigated the case. Her co-accused however remains un-convicted and walks freely.
She denied the accusation. But.
Her lawyer, only able to access her after the judgment was made, understands that following her initial denial she was beaten up and tortured repeatedly by her brother forcing her to confess to committing adultery. With the ‘coerced’ confession, Judge Sami Ibrahim Shabo of Ombada General Criminal Court, Khartoum state, sentenced her to stoning after just one court session.
Brilliant. Her brother tortured her into “confessing” that she had sex without being married, and the judge seized this torture-compelled “confession” to a non-crime and ruled that she should be stoned to death.
People don’t get much worse than the condemners and killers of Intisar who treat women as non-human, lifeless possessions. It is no different from how Jews were treated by the Nazis, how Black people were treated by White people in the Americas, etc. It is rage inducing.
Oh, didn’t you know? If she was REALLY innocent she would have died before confessing. The fact that she CAN be tortured into confessing means that she’s guilty, in a way. The very act of confessing to the crime, regardless of whether she did it, is just as damning as actually committing the crime.
What she was supposed to do is allow herself to be tortured to death. If she had just held out until the end, she would be enjoying eternity in heaven right now.
(When I started typing I thought it was going to be a parody but I rather think I nailed the actual thought patterns instead. Ugh.)
Where is the international outrage against such practices? Why do they not attract the sort of campaign that was waged against Apartheid in the 60s, 70s and 80s?
International outrage is being muted by the forces that say we are being imperialist if we protect women against abusers in another culture. During British colonial days, they insisted that Hindus stop burning widows alive on their husband’s funeral pyres; where is anyone with this kind of cojones now?
Yes, there are some things that are wrong, and NOT culturally relative. But in the interests of being tolerant to other cultures, we’ve lost the ability to say so.
Thanks for the picture, Ophelia. I probably won’t be able to get that image out of my head for days! 🙁
During British colonial days, they insisted that Hindus stop burning widows alive on their husband’s funeral pyres; where is anyone with this kind of cojones now?
Well, there’s Maryam Namazie, there’s Wafa Sultan, there’s Ayaan Hirsi Ali, there’s Irshad Manji. Not one of them has any cojones though.
:b
South Africa had business associates that could be pressured and exports we could boycott. Sudan has next to no industry and even its oil goes to China, India and so on. I’m not sure what could be done…
But this still makes me want to scream. Really scream.
During British colonial days, they insisted that Hindus stop burning widows alive on their husband’s funeral pyres; where is anyone with this kind of cojones now?
—
No government is the West will take a position due to colonial guilt. In fact, there will be people in the West who will insist that it is “their” culture and that the widows are perfectly happy to meet their fate. We should not judge them.
I am Indian and I am happy that the British put a stop to that barbaric practice. There are some in India who still think that it was a wonderful practice. Indians now use more sophisticated methods to keep women subjugated.
Bob @ #3:
“Where is the international outrage against such practices? Why do they not attract the sort of campaign that was waged against Apartheid in the 60s, 70s and 80s?”
I suggest that the possibility of offending white South African sensibilities over Apartheid was not much of a deterrent, and there were liberal votes to be courted domestically. But offending Islam is regarded as dangerous diplomatic territory, particularly since so much of the world’s oil lies under Islamic ground. No telling what boxcar effect could be started.
I don’t think the Sudan gets much revenue from tourism, so there is not much the populations in the West can do. But the sooner the West kicks the fossil fuel habit, the better; particularly as so little of the oil revenue trickles down to the Arab street.
It was also “muted” on the political right when the concept of fighting for Muslim women’s rights ceased to be politically useful to neoconservatives.
Even if she were “guilty” of adultery, she should not be stoned to death! Where do we start with this sort of goddist-sanctioned nonsense? It is wrong to torture a confession; a tortured confession is an unsafe confession; a fair trial requires adequate representation of the accused (yanno, conference before the trial – not simply after the verdict – and representation during the trial including the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses, etc etc) and moreover, adultery should not anyway be a concern of the criminal law but a private matter between husband and wife (what, she didn’t even consent to be married?)…
Ah, I am begging so many questions here I’m wondering how the stoners and the rest of us can still be on the same planet.
Brilliant graphic, btw.
Her BROTHER tortured her to confession? How? How is this level of depravity possible? How can this animal even be considered a person?
Most importantly, what can be done to help this poor girl? Comments and outrage on a website alone will not really help her.
I hate these people. I mean HATE. I don’t want to hear any bullshit about culture, etc.
I hate them. I hate their relatives. I hate their neighbors. I haten everything about them.
I’m 70 years old next week and I can’t tell you how exquisitely happy I am that I won’t be around to read much more of this horrible shit.
I have no doubt that humans will extinguish themselves from this planet — can’t be a moment too soon.