The Iranian woman who has become an international cause celebre after she was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery is now in line to receive 99 lashes - for not appearing in a photograph with a head scarf.
AFP reports:
In an interview published on the website of the French magazine La Regle du Jeu and the blog Dentelles et Tchador, Mohammadi-Ashtiani's son Sajjad said they learned of the new punishment from released inmates.He said that a prison judge confirmed that she was to be lashed for spreading "corruption and indecency" by the publication of a photograph of her without a headscarf that appeared in a British newspaper.
The Times of London published on August 28 a photo of a woman without a headscarf that it said was Mohammadi-Ashtiani, however on September 3 it said the attribution of the photo, which it received from one of her lawyers that has fled Iran, was incorrect.
The photo "... is certainly not that of my mother," said Sajjad.
Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was given the death penalty for an extramarital relationship.
Iran has subsequently said she was also convicted of being an accomplice in her husband's death, though she has denied that was the case.
Ashtiani is lucky in the sense that her case has become an international human rights imbroglio. Meanwhile, back in Iran, dozens of women are stoned to death every year for similar "crimes" - sometimes with their own family participating. The mullahs have not said that the woman will not be stoned, just that her case is being "reviewed."
While they're at it, they might want to "review" the fact that the Times photo that has led to the sentence of 99 lashes just might be in error too.
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