The Stoning of Soraya M.: A Story of Injustice in Iran

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Soraya M.s husband, Ghorban-Ali, couldnt afford to marry another woman. Rather than returning Sorayas dowry, as custom required before taking a second wife, he plotted with four friends and a counterfeit mullah to dispose of her. Together, they accused Soraya of adultery. Her only crime was cooking for a friends widowed husband. Exhausted by a lifetime of abuse and hardship, Soraya said nothing, and the makeshift tribunal took her silence as a confession of guilt. They sentenced her to death by stoning: a punishment prohibited by Islam but widely practiced.
Day by daysometimes minute by minuteSahebjam deftly recounts these horrendous events, tracing Sorayas life with searing immediacy, from her arranged marriage and the births of her children to her husbands increasing cruelty and her horrifying execution, where, by tradition, her father, husband, and sons hurled the first stones. A stark look at the intersection between culture and justice, this is one womans story, but it stands for the stories of thousands of women who sufferedand continue to sufferthe same fate. It is a story that must be told.

Reviews

Starred Review. An unforgettable indictment, brilliantly written and translated, of man s inhumanity to woman and of tyranny disguised as righteousness.
Starred Review. Profoundly disturbing. . . . highly recommended.

Author Bio

Freidoune Sahebjam, the son of a former Iranian ambassador, is a journalist who was sentenced to death in absentia for his undercover reporting criticizing the Iranian government. He lives in hiding in France.