Urgent Appeal to All Supporters of Human Rights

Shadi Sadr
Attorney at Law
Tehran, Iran

As an Iranian lawyer and a human rights defender, I am writing to you to ask you to help me save the life of a woman sentenced to death by stoning! Asharf Kalhori, who is currently in Evin prison in Tehran, is scheduled to be stoned to death by the end of July 2006 for the crime of having "sex".

I am voluntarily representing Ashraf, the mother of four children of ages 9 to 19 to save her from stoning. She had an extramarital affair because she never loved her husband, but her request for divorce had been rejected by the court based on the fact that she had children and, therefore, had to resume living with her husband. Therefore, some women whose divorce requests are denied opt for extramarital affairs.

If you believe that stoning is not an appropriate punishment for a woman having sex with a man other than her husband, if you believe that having sex is not a crime and does not turn a person into a criminal, and if you believe that Ahsraf Kalhori does not deserve to die for having had sex, then please express your opposition to stoning.

Your voice counts! I am asking you to please raise your voice against stoning Ashraf Kalhori by signing the petition addressed to the Iranian Head of the Judiciary and the Iranian Parliament representatives. We can save Ashraf's life and, furthermore, together demand a ban on stoning for ever!

Please sign this petition and let the Iranian Head of Judiciary and the Iranian Parliament know that there exists grand opposition to stoning women for having sex, and that we all appose stoning as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Please forward this letter to others who may be interested.

http://www.petitiononline.com/AshrafK/petition.html