People familiar with Middle Eastern culture should have heard of a punishment called "stoning.".
The tortured are buried in a pit, the male is buried at the waist, the female is buried in the chest, and the whole person cannot move. Around them, there would be dozens of executioners, each holding a fist-sized stone in his hand, and throwing it at them.
(Iranian woman protests stoning in Brussels)
In the fierce rain of stones, the tortured became blurred with flesh and blood, and their bodies were covered with stones.
According to the regulations, if they can struggle to escape from the pit, they will be allowed to be released, but if they cannot escape, they will be smashed alive.
(Note: In reality, there are almost no examples of escaping)
This punishment sounds very cruel and outdated, but I did not expect that in 2022, it will still appear.
(Stone torture stones are selected so that people will not die too quickly)
Recently, a 20-year-old married Sudanese woman was convicted of "adultery" by the Sultan's Kostifa Criminal Court for having sex with her lover and was stoned to death.
The woman, maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, married her husband and did not have a good relationship. Not long ago, they chose to live apart, and Maryam returned to live in her own home.
During this time, she met another man, and the two gradually became intimate and eventually became lovers.
The relationship is unsightly because Sudan is a Muslim country and uses Sharia law. The Shariah stipulates that sexual intercourse between a married person and a person outside the marriage is a "crime of adultery", the circumstances are so serious that they should be punished by death.
Last month, police in Sudan's White Nile state arrested Mariam, who did not allow her to hire a lawyer or tell her that what she said during the trial would be heard by the court. Through the means of violation, they obtained the confession they wanted.
(Sudanese State of The White Nile)
On 26 June, the court convicted Mariam of adultery by stoning.
There was no media coverage of her lover and probably no arrest.
As soon as the news came out, there was also an uproar in Sudan, because for them, stoning was not a common punishment, and the last time it appeared was 10 years ago.
Under the Sudanese Penal Code of 1991, stoning is a statutory form of punishment for rape, adultery and homosexuality.
Among them, the number of sentences of stoning for adultery is the largest.
(Sudanese female)
Under Sharia law, adulterers are required to be sentenced in the presence of four witnesses and sentenced to both men and women. But because of gender discrimination, as well as the high illiteracy rate of women and the easier access to confessions, most stony sentences are directed against women.
In the 21st century, women in Sudan are stoned for adultery every year, but almost all sentences are overturned in the High Court.
The most recent judgment was in 2012. Intisar Sharif Abdalla, a 20-year-old woman, was stoned by the Ombadah Criminal Court. This verdict was also revoked under strong condemnation by the international community.
Will Mariam be lucky this time?
No one knows, but activists say they are worried.
In a military coup in Sudan last October, the reform-pushing prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, stepped down. His government had made some progress in women's rights, such as banning the circumcision of women, which could have dissipated after the coup.
(Abdullah Hamduk)
The Uganda-based African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies said The sentence against Maryam violated domestic and international law and called on Sudan to release her immediately.
"This woman did not get a fair trial at all ... The imposition of stoning for adultery is also a serious violation of international law, including the right to life, the prohibition of torture and the prohibition of degrading punishments. ”
Maryam's treatment was not limited to Sudan, and to this day, stoning is legal in many countries.
Stone punishment appeared thousands of years ago, and it was a common method of death in ancient Israel to punish people who had sexual disorder, disobedience to their parents, being a wizard, incest, and having sex with people of the same sex.
In both Judeo-Christian scriptures, there are descriptions of stoning, and it was widely accepted by society at the time.
The Qur'an of Islam does not mention stoning, but scholars of classical Islamic jurisprudence, according to the sunnah (i.e., what the Prophet Muhammad said), have set stone punishment as punishment for unlawful acts.
In modern society, stoning has gradually disappeared, although the scriptures say that so-and-so crime should be stoned, and no one really does this.
But in the late 20th century, with the advent of the Islamic Revival Movement, many Islamic countries were eager to break away from Western influence and demanded full implementation of Sharia law, including the restoration of punishments such as stoning, flogging, and cutting off hands and feet.
The harsh Hudud law, which became the heart of Sharia law, stipulates that anyone who apostatizes, revolts, steals, rapes, commits adultery, slanders, or drinks alcohol faces amputation, flogging, or the death penalty (either hanging or stoning).
Over the past five decades, countries including Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia have incorporated the Hudu law into their criminal justice systems.
Stoning, on the other hand, became the harshest punishment for adulterers in these countries.
Still, it's less of a common death sentence and more of a symbol or deterrent.
Yemen, for example, stipulated in 1994 that married men who commit adultery or engage in homosexual acts are subject to stoning. At present, no one has been stoned by the court.
Mauritania used Sharia law in 1983 and there have been no reports of stoning until now.
In 12 northern Nigerian states, stoning is legal, with at least six people sentenced to stoning, but each case won on appeal.
The UAE used stoning as a punishment for adultery in 1987, and courts have only used it in rare cases.
But extrajudicial stoning is plentiful, especially in Somalia and Afghanistan.
In 2015, there was a video that shocked the world.
A group of Afghan men pulled out a crying woman, threw her into a pit, and threw stones at her.
In the video, people can be heard frantically shouting "kill her" and "kill her", as well as the screams and cries of women.
(Video screenshot)
The Taliban say it was the pro-government militia that found the woman committing adultery and stoned her. The government says it was done by the Taliban, who often kill women who have extramarital affairs.
In 2008, a 13-year-old girl was stoned to death by 50 men in a gymnasium in Somalia, and 1,000 people watched the scene, which was bloody and desperate.
The al-Shabaab militia that executed the girl said the girl was a 23-year-old woman who had committed adultery with three men.
But the family told reporters that they judged their age entirely based on their appearance, and that the girl was raped by three men, and that after the family informed al-Shabaab, the girl was convicted of adultery.
In the gymnasium, Al-Shabaab brought a truckload of stones and threw them at her in turn. Halfway they thought the girl was dead and asked the nurse to check it out. When he found out that she was still angry, he put her back into the hole and continued to hit her until he died.
(Al-Shabaab of Somalia)
In 2018, it was al-Shabaab in Somalia that they said nine men had come to court to accuse a 30-year-old woman of bigamy.
A person who identified himself as a judge said the woman admitted she had secretly married 11 men. Al-Shabaab dragged her to a public square in lower Shabelle and stoned her to death in front of everyone.
There are many similar cases, most of which occur in ignorant and remote places.
It is despicable that such cruel things are still happening in the 21st century.
I don't know how many years it will take for humanity to cross the barbaric swamp of ignorance and usher in a comprehensive civilization...