Kurdistan Aziz (Iraqi Kurdistan):
May 17, 2008

Kurdistan Aziz was 16 years old when she escaped her family with a man she knew they would not accept, and courageously following the ancient tradition of radu kauten they eloped together to Arbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan. They planned to start a life together. But her father had other ideas for her; not of love, happiness or choice but that she must die for this rebellion against the patriarchal order.

The girl was well aware of the risk so she asked the police for help in the KDP controlled city. They referred her to the Department to End Domestic Violence. This Department, pledged to protect girls like Kurdistan proved themselves corrupt in accepting a bribe from her father and turned her over to him knowing the consequences. No Kurd could claim to be unaware of the dangers of returning a young woman to her father in this situation, particularly not a professional within a Department of this nature. The person who accepted this bribe is an accessory to murder since that is what 'honour' killing is, controlled murder.

Kurdistan Aziz was taken back to her family; they chose to kill her by the method of stoning her to death on the Hawre Mountain. A local woman's organization alerted the authorities in the Governate of Sulemaniya, controlled by the PUK. The PUK refused to intervene in a 'tribal issue' and asked the women's organization to risk their own safety to provide a photograph of her. On 17-18th of May, at 16 years old, Kurdistan Aziz, the girl who fell in love, was killed by her relatives, her body crushed with rocks.

For more information see:

Du’a Khalil Aswad (Iraqi Kurdistan):

April 7, 2007

“Du’a Khalil Aswad was a 17-year old Yazidi (a non-Muslim Kurdish minority) girl in Iraq who was stoned to death because members of her community believed she had run off to marry a Sunni Muslim man. A number of people in the crowd filmed the brutal death on their mobile phones, and the footage was later posted on the Internet. Aswad was a member of the Yazidi religious sect, which bans marriage outside of faith. They [the crowd] brutally killed a young Yazidi girl in pursuit of out-of-date tribal rites," the AFP news agency quoted Tahsin Saeed Ali, the Yazidi religious leader known as the emir of the Yazidis in Iraq as saying. Iraqi authorities have since reportedly arrested four people in connection to Aswad’s death, including members of the girl’s immediate family.”

[Al-Jazeera News]

For video clips, see:

Warning: these video clips show graphic and disturbing images.

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Jafar Kiani (Iran):

July 5, 2007

Jafar Kiani was stoned to death in Agche-kand, a small village near Takistan, Ghazvin in Iran on July 5, 2007. Kiani and his partner, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, had been in prison for more than 11 years for alleged adultery and have two children together. The couple’s children live in prison with their mother. Mr. Eslahi, the judge who issued the stoning sentence, believed that the couple’s marriage had not been legitimate based on his own “gut-instinct” of the case instead of hard evidence or confession. The stoning was reportedly carried out by mostly officials and service men, and few villagers participated.

For more information on Jafar Kiani’s stoning and the campaign to save his partner Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, see

Sara Jaffar Nimat (Iraqi Kurdistan)

August 3, 2007

Sara Jaffar Nimat is an 11-year-old girl from the town of Khanaqin in Iraqi Kurdistan. She was murdered on the 3 August 2007. The painful, degrading and horrific killing of Sara is another outrageous crime against young girls and women in Kurdistan. Sara was only in fifth grade at school. Loved by her friends, they played together on the night she was killed. Sara’s body was found in a nearby empty building. It had been hit by bricks, stones, and then burnt. There is not much information yet about who committed such a barbaric crime against an innocent young girl.

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Name Unknown (Pakistan)

June 9, 2007

A Pakistani woman was stoned to death in “honor killing” by her relatives on June 9 2007 in Shahbaz Garhi neighborhood in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. The father and husband of the woman admitted that they had killed her because of a suspected extra-marital affair. The woman’s brother also took part in the stoning, but cannot be found by police officials.

For more information, see:

Names Unknown (Pakistan)

A Pakistani man and woman were tied to a tree and stoned to death on suspicion of committing adultery. Hundreds of people are killed every year in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, most of them women in rural communities, after being deemed to have dishonoured their families. Police said they had arrested two people over the killing of the man and woman at the weekend in a village in Punjab province. "The man and woman were relatives and were stoned to death by their relatives," senior police officer Zafar Bokhari told Reuters by telephone from the central city of Multan. "The accused said they caught Ghulam Nabi and Elahi in a compromising position and killed them in a rage," he said. Another relative of the victims reported the killings to the police who opened a double murder case against four people, Bokhari said. The man and woman apparently pleaded their innocence but were caught by their relatives, tied to a tree and killed with bricks.

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Mahboubeh M. and Abbas H. (Iran)

May 7, 2006

Mahboubeh M. And Abbas H. were found guilty of murdering Mahboubeh’s husband and committing adultery with each other, for which they were sentenced to stoning. The public was not invited to the executions carried out in Behesht Zahra grand cemetery and the incident was not reported by local news sources. Eventually news of the event was spread by word of mouth to Asieh Amini, journalist and women’s rights activist, who then went to Mashhad to gather information and report on the, thereby exposing news of the event to the world. In response to the deaths of these two individuals, members of the Network of Volunteer Lawyers and women’s rights activists formed the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign in order to abolish the law of stoning in Iran.

For more information, see

Individuals Awaiting Stoning Sentence:

Kobra Najjar (Iran)

Kobra is a 44-year old Iranian woman who is currently being detained in Tabriz prison. Kobra’s husband subjected her to systematic violence during their marriage, forcing her into prostitution in order to sustain his heroin addiction. In 1995, Kobra confided in one of her regular “customers”, Habib, after a severe beating by her husband. Habib, sympathetic to Kobra’s suffering, allegedly murdered her husband. He was sentenced to death for this murder, but was released upon paying “dieh”, or blood money, to the heirs of the victim, and enduring 100 lashes for fornication with Kobra. Kobra herself was charged by the Tabriz High Court with being an accomplice to the murder of her husband, as well as adultery. For the latter crime, she was sentenced to death by stoning. Kobra has since served her eight-year sentence for being an accomplice to murder and is awaiting her sentence of stoning for the crime of adultery.

For more information, see https://stop-stoning.org/node/216

Amouna Abdallah Daldoum (Sudan)

Amounda Abdallah Daldoum is a 23 years old Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery on March 6, 2007 by the criminal court of Al-Azazi, Managil province, Gazeera state. She was charged under article 146 (a) of Sudan’s 1991 Penal Code, which states that whoever commits the offence of adultery shall be punished with: a) execution by stoning when the offender is married (Muhsan); b) one hundred lashes when the offender is not married (non-muhsan)." She has since appealed the judgement.

For more information, see http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-551856

Sadia Idries Fadul (Sudan)

Sadria Idries Fadul is a 22 year old woman from Tama tribe in Darfur. She was charged on February 13, 2007, to execution by stoning for committing adultery by the criminal court of Al-Azazi, Managil province, Gazeera state. Fadul was charged under article 146(a) of Sudan’s 1991 Penal Code, which states that whoever commits the offence of adultery shall be punished with: a) execution by stoning when the offender is married (Muhsan); b) one hundred lashes when the offender is not married (non-muhsan)." It has been reported that Fadul does not fully understand Arabic, the language used in Court, and that the man questioned in her case was discharged after denying adultery and due to lack of evidence.

For more information, see http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-551856

Kheirieh V. (Iran)

Kheirieh is currently being detained in Depidar Prison, Ahwaz, Iran.) Kheirieh was a farmer who worked alongside her verbally and physically abusive husband. After her husband was murdered by one of his relatives, Kheirieh confessed on four different occasions to having had an affair with the murderer, but insists she had nothing to do with the murder itself. Kheirieh states that she is prepared to die, but wishes only to be spared the torture of stoning. She is also states that, if freed, she will have no choice but to return to the home of her brothers, and is convinced that they will kill her.

For more information, see

Iran A. (Iran)

Iran was born in a Ghashghayi tribe and was forced into an arranged marriage with her cousin. Unable to obtain a divorce, Iran befriended her neighbor’s son. Iran has “confessed” to adultery only once, under severe interrogation; on other occasions she has only admitted to having phone contact and letter correspondence with the man. One day, after finding Iran and her neighbor’s son talking in the front yard, Iran’s husband violently attacked her, breaking two of her front teeth and knocking her unconscious. In reaction, the neighbor’s son attacked Iran’s husband with a knife and killed him. On April 11, 2005, a judge in the small local city in Khuzestan province sentenced Iran to five years in prison for being an accomplice to the murder of her husband as well as death by stoning for adultery. This sentence has been approved by the highest national courts and Iran is currently serving her five year prison sentence being executed by stoning. If Iran is freed, she is convinced she will be murdered by her relatives.

For more information, see

Ashraf Kalhori (Iran)

Ashraf Kalhori is a 38-year-old mother of four who is currently being detained in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. On April 22, 2002, she was accused of having an affair with a man named Mahmood and being an accomplice to the murder of her husband by the same man. She has confessed to the murder once, under police interrogation, but has since repeatedly denied any involvement in the crime. Regardless of proof, the judge in the case found her guilt to be “self evident” and charged Kalhori with 15 years imprisonment for being an accomplice to murder and death by stoning for adultery. The sentence has since been temporary suspended resulting from her repentance latter submitted to the head of the Judiciary along with a petition for the commuting of her sentenced signed by various Iranian and international human rights organizations, women’s rights groups, and activists. However, Kalhori’s sentence has not been commuted and she is still awaiting her sentence of death by stoning.

For more information, see