The still facing death for committing adultery
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne focuses on the issue of the severe punishment for adultery more than 350 years ago; yet today, women in many countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, and Iran still suffer similar fates. Women such as Amina Lawal, Farzana Parveen, and Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani are still facing death for committing adultery where only 7,108 miles away in America women commit adultery as a pastime. Amina Lawal is a 31-year-old mother in Nigeria and shortly after the birth of her child who was the 20 months old, she was on trial for adultery. Her punishment according to Muslim law will either be buried up to the neck or stoned “until the life leaves her body” (Jerome, Sansoni, and Finan) Not too long after Lawal was in court, begging for mercy a final decision would be handed down Sept. 25.
With the constitution prohibits cruel and inhumane punishments and President Olusegun Obasanjo it was expected that the sentence to be overturned by the Supreme Court. She and the father of her 20-month-old child had been planning to wed, but once his family objected to their union he broke things off. Nine days after giving birth to her child Lawal was arrested, in which Mohammed denied ever having any sexual relations with Lawal to avoid the punishment of his own.
“The wearer of the scarlet letter was at length relieved, by discerning on the outskirts of the crowd a figure which irresistibly took possession of her thoughts.” (Hawthorne 5) During the final days before the lead out to her death, Lawal was noted being the 21st century Hester Prynne by her neighbors in her village. On May 27th, 2014 in Pakistan, a crowd gathered outside of a courthouse to watch 25-year-old Farzana Parveen be stoned to her death. She was being stoned to death by her father, brother and her turned fiance for disobeying her family’s wishes and marrying the man she loved rather than her cousin, therefore bringing shame on her family. Her father Mohammed Azeem was charged with murder, but he told the police “I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it.” (Winter) Parveen was attacked immediately after leaving the courthouse with her husband. Mohammad Iqbal, her family was already there to press false charges against Iqbal saying that he had kidnapped Parveen. It’s estimated that at least 1,000 Pakistan women are killed by their own families for committing adultery or even at the possibility of committing adultery or premarital sex annually.
Public stonings like in Parveen’s case, however, are rare. Despite committing murder many of the murders are not put in jail. “…and honor killing is most probably the easiest way of killing a woman and avoid capital punishment at the same time.” (Winter) The families are trying to regain honor again through God, yet losing honor even more as the Quran, the bible they live their lives by does not approve of murder no matter the circumstance, that now the ignorant murders can expect hellfire as their punishment. Sakineh Mohommad Ashtiani wasa a 43 year old old mother when she was sentenced to death by stoning in mid 2010, yet that’s not the first time she has received punishment.
In 2005 she was given “99 lashes for alleged adultery with two men against her then living-husband” (Daftari) Her confession was taken after her lashes and the her case was closed, until the death of her husband in which she was charged with helping murder her husband in mid 2010, quickly though those charges were dropped until a loophole in the islamic government was found and help give her the death many islamic men and women felt she deserved. Now the judge can give a sentence based on “judges knowledge, in other words, on a hunch” (Daftari) through this time Ashtani had become an international icon through her beautiful picture portraying the innocence of the Iranian regime victims and used to the intense international media coverage the judiciary committee over This case decided they would reconsider her case, but stoning was still going to be considered. The press coverage did not save her from her death, just delayed the inevitable. Women all across the globe are having sexua relatons with men they are not married to and then gosssip about it the next day, no ounsihment is not given to eitehr aprty, just glorification. WHer as women commting the same deed are being killed. Hester Prynee wa mad and example in her community by wear the letter just as the women in Pkistan, Iran, and Igeria are killed, just to set the example that women are inferiot as then men are rarely ever punished or judged.
