Stoning belongs in past, not modern times
by Diana DeLeon, feature editor

    Execution of women by burying them in the dirt up to their necks and then throwing stones at the head until death is a centuries-old punishment still practiced today in some Third World Islamic countries. All in the name of Allah.

    A recent article in Time magazine spoke of a woman who had a child by her boyfriend, after she had left her husband. She was arrested for adultery. Her boyfriend was released because no one saw him have sex with her, but the baby is proof she had sex.

    The holy book of Islam, the Koran, prescribes harsh treatment for those who practice sex outside of marriage, but, typically, only the woman is punished becauseÑlet's face itÑthe men are in charge of interpreting the law.

    According to the Koran, adulterous women should be put under house arrest until death or until Allah punishes them another way.

    This decree is what men use to justify the stoning of women.

    This practice is torture, and a violation of women, human rights and civil rights. These concepts are not widely recognized in Third World countries, but they are gaining ground.

    When students in China spoke up against the government and were gunned down as a result, the world cried out loudly: foul, human rights violation É you cannot do that; we will not let you get away with it.

    The stoning to death of women has brought no cry, not even a whisper from the world. I wonder why?

    Is it because the movement in China was political, and this punishment is in the name of religion and God?

    Or is it because we as students, those of us who can make a difference in world, choose to worry about our own problems instead?

    Is violence in the name of God freedom of religion?

    It takes two people to produce a baby. Yet the father is not punished because no one saw him have sex with the woman.

    His being the father of the baby is not enough evidence to punish him because, again, men are in charge of the law.

    These are the same men who jail their wives for giving birth to a girl instead of a boy. (Males determine the sex of a baby.)

    Students and governments of the world need to cry out, to cry foul and to do something about it loudly so that the world hears.

    Many of these same countries claim that stoning is no longer done to punish women, but the practice continues.

    As long as we continue to look the other way when human rights are violated, such actions will continue.