Source: The Guardian

A video has emerged of what appears to be a young Afghan woman, married against her will, stoned to death for trying to elope with another man.

In a graphic, 30-second video, which has not been verified, a group of men are hurling stones at what seems to be a woman reciting the Islamic creed of faith from a neck-deep pit.

A group of people are watching the stoning as the men throw rocks with increasing speed, without betraying any visible emotion. The video cuts before the woman is killed.

The incident occurred in Ghalmeen, a village outside the capital of the central Afghan province of Ghor, which is under the control of armed opposition groups, according to the provincial governor, Seema Joyenda.

The woman, previously identified as Rokhshana, 19, was stoned last week, accused of adultery with a man much younger than the person she was forcibly married to.

According to Joyenda, who has staff members from the village, Rokhshana first ran away several years ago to Iran after her family tried to marry her off to an old man. After they brought her back, they forcibly married her off to another old man. When she ran away this time, she did so as a married woman, and was punished with stoning, Joyenda said.

Local officials, including the police chief and the head of Ghor’s department for women’s affairs, Masooma Anwari, have blamed the Taliban for the killing, claiming that the sentence was decided in a Taliban court.

However, activists in Kabul warned against jumping to conclusions. Wazhma Frogh, co-founder of the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security, said her contacts in Ghor had told her the perpetrators were not Taliban but rather local tribal leaders.

Reference

The Muslim Times’ Editor’s comment

Whereas, there are verses in the Old Testament talking about stoning for various crimes, you can Google the details; there are no verses in the Holy Quran prescribing stoning for any crime.

Despite this ground reality the senseless approach of these Afghans is mind boggling.

Such is the irony of pursuing the “Shariah Law,” and not respecting the wisdom of secularism.