Blog #1: Nearly 50 Executions in Iran so Far in 2011

In Iran 47 people have been hanged in the past three weeks. It’s been estimated that one person has been executed every eight hours. Two of the people executed were political prisoners. It’s been thought that most the executions are drug-trafficking related crimes, except for in the case of 43 year old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashanti, who received a sentence of death by stoning for committing the crime of adultery. After her case received worldwide attention, her sentence was lessened from death by stoning to 10 years in prison. Although Ashanti’s case is amazing, some feel that her story has merely become a distracting from the bigger issue of the staggering number of executions since the start of the year.

In my opinion the involvement of Human Rights groups in Iran because of the executions is a positive thing, but it also calls into question the notion of why these westernized groups are getting involved in another countries form of punishment? To me I get the feeling that they are calling Iran out because of a Westernized idea that capital punishment is seen as a last resort set aside for only the most harden criminals who commit the most heinous crimes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has a lot to do with our concept and notion of what is right and wrong and what all human beings are “entitled” to. I feel the issue isn’t merely the executions, but the reason why human rights organizations feel the need to intervene.