It’s not adultery if you murder your husband first and then…

Iran isn’t know for its compassion for women. These days, the public face of cruelty to women is Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman who was accused of having an illicit relationship with two men while she was married. There are numerous contradictions to this story, but there seems to be no dispute that Ms. Ashtiani had a relationship with one of the men, her husband’s cousin Eisa Taheri.

In this video she is interviewed about her involvement.  Listening to her, she could be any woman who was romanced by a louse.

“According to the Iranian courts, her husband, Ebrahim Qaderzadeh, 44, was found dead on his bathroom floor in Meshkinshahr, in north-west Iran. Mohammadi Ashtiani is said by Iranian officials to have confessed to having had an extramarital affair with the killer, Eisa Taheri, and to have said that she had seduced him. The judiciary has also claimed that she confessed to having planned the murder in collaboration with Taheri, claims that are vigorously denied by her family.” – Guardian Newspaper

French First Lady Carla Carla Bruni-Sarkozy penned an open letter to Ashtiani, condemning her stoning sentence, [stoning would] “deeply wound all women, all children, all those who have feelings of humanity.”

Iran responded by calling the first lady a prostitute.

Can America, France or Britain, or any in the international community convince generations of men of the value of women?  Iran isn’t the only country that devalues women.  A 2007 article estimates that 200 million girls have been lost over the past 20 years due to sex-selective abortions.

“By 2020, 30 million Chinese men of marriageable age are expected to be in that situation because of 30 million “missing” young women. Many historians warn that a large number of unmarried men in a society is a recipe for social unrest and war.” – Human Events

Iran hasn’t cornered the market on mistreatment of women; they’ve just become today’s example of the devaluing of female life.  Changing it may lie in the future, when the lack of women may help to provide more appreciation for what we have to offer to society.  In the meantime, silence is not an option and while changing male opinions  may be a lost cause, perhaps the generation of men rising up in the shadows will be the best advocates for women’s rights.  It wasn’t all that long ago that debate in the U.S. House of Representatives centered on whether women should vote.  And, it was the mother of Congressman Harry Burn that changed our lives for the better.

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