Kelley Carter
6:23 p.m.
23 November 2009
In a recent upsurge in stonings in Somalia by the conservative Muslim group al-Shabab, another woman was stoned to death in front of a crowd of 200 people. The 20-year-old divorcee supposedly had an affair with a 29-year-old unmarried man. She recently had a baby who was still born and soon after was charged with adultery. Her sentence was to be buried up to her waist and stoned to death. Her boyfriend received 100 lashes for the offence. The group controls much of Southern Somalia where it has imposed Sharia, a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Anyone who has ever been married, whether they are divorced or not is liable to be found guilty of adultery under Sharia law. This death is at least the fourth stoning in Somalia in the last year.
This is the third or fourth story I’ve read where someone was stoned to death for adultery in Somalia. Each time more mention is made of how much al-Shabab controls in Somalia and never is there any mention of al-Shabab receiving any form of punishment. It is clear that the president, who was elected after UN brokered peace talks, does not have much power. On one hand I think al-Shabab is likely gearing up for an offence against the unstable government and should be treated like such. On the other hand, I think government oppression or mistrust will just make al-Shabab more angry and more dangerous. While the best way to prevent an armed conflict would be to allow them to practice their traditions, I cannot in good conscience say we should allow al-Shabab to practice traditions like stoning.
3 comments:
This is awful to read about, that such things still occur today. The whole fact was that she was divorced, single, and chose to have an affair with an unmarried man older than her. Then she has his still-born child. Due to all this, which happens everyday here in America, she is stoned to death and he is punished with lashings. That's horrific.
It makes me very sad that women are still stoned for being unfaithful. Now in our modern times I can only hope that more people will be open minded about punishments.
Ridiculous that the woman was stoned while the man got a mild punishment in comparison...
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