The Stoning of Soraya M. [Hardcover]

This resonant book portrays the ugliness of fundamentalist Islamic mob justice in Khomeini-era Iran. Sahebjam, an Iranian journalist based in France who has written critically of the regime, returned to his homeland under cover in 1986. While visiting a small town he calls Kupayeh, he learned how an innocent 35-year-old woman had been stoned to death for supposed infidelity. His thorough reporting, based on a further visit to the village, reconstructs Soraya's life and killing with much dialogue and interior monologue. Soraya gave birth to nine children in 14 years and her husband Ghorban-Ali also turned to prostitutes. He became involved in shady business deals and began to associate with Sheik Hassan, a criminal who was appointed Ayatollah Khomeini's local representative. When Ghorban-Ali, having fallen in love with another woman, accused his wife of infidelity, villagers lied to aid him and Soraya was left with no support in the town. Her two eldest sons sat on the male tribunal that declared her guilty, and she was stoned by a mob that included her father. This book refuses to let such horror go unremembered.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

YA-While Sahebjam, an expatriated Iranian journalist, was in his native land on assignment for a French publication in 1986, he recorded this account. Zahra Khanum is an old woman whose niece Soraya was but one of over 1,000 people who were stoned to death in Iran in the last 15 years. Set solidly in a fundamentalist village, the story of Soraya's less-than-honorable husband; the false mullah, Sheik Hassan; and the events leading up to her stoning are relayed. The manipulation of government, church, and society by dishonorable persons; the lack of proof and villagers' support to save Soraya; and the mob mentality of the townspeople on the fateful day are all made clear. Students, parents, and teachers might want to discuss this work with Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," or with historical events such as the Holocaust or the Salem witch trails. A powerful work that should generate thought in all of its readers.
Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This profoundly disturbing but very important little book tells the true story, in graphic detail, of the events leading to the stoning to death of Soraya Manutchehri in a small village in southwestern Iran in August 1986. Soraya was innocent; she was condemned to death on fictitious charges of adultery so that her husband could marry another woman (he was too poor to support two wives.) The author, an Iranian journalist raised in France, first heard of Soraya's fate in fall 1986 while in Iran on assignment for a French publication. In Soraya's village, he met her aunt Zahra, who began to recount Soraya's terrible ordeal. He later returned and met the villagers primarily involved in determining Soraya's "justice," including her husband, her father, and the village mayor. Though it would be easy to condemn Islam after reading this book, educated Muslims would decry this stoning as much as Westerners (officially, such an action is prohibited in Islam). Highly recommended for all libraries.
- Ruth K. Baacke, Whatcom Cty . Lib. Sys., Bellingham, Wash.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It is hard to believe that in 1986 a woman in a small village in Iran was buried up to her neck at the town square and the men of the village, including her father, husband, and sons, threw stones and rocks at her until she died. But an estimated 1,000 women have been stoned since the beginning of the Khomeini regime in 1979. Though prohibited by law, stoning can be sanctioned by the all-male religious authorities to punish a woman deemed unfaithful to her husband. In the case of Soraya, a pious wife and mother, her abusive, criminal husband wanted to get rid of her and marry his mistress. Iranian-born French journalist Sahebjam, himself condemned to death by the Khomeini regime, uncovered this horror while reporting undercover on his native land. He tells it in chilling, excruciating detail--a horrifying but vitally important story that clearly shows the human rights violations and the rampant gender bias that still exist in the world. Mary Ellen Sullivan

An indelible retelling--implacable, elegiac, simmering with moral outrage--of the stoning to death of an Iranian woman falsely accused of adultery. In the fall of 1986, Sahebjam--an Iranian journalist who'd been kidnapped and beaten by pro-Khomeini terrorists in Paris- -sneaked into Iran to investigate conditions. In the isolated village of Kupayeh, an old woman beckoned him aside and told him that, two weeks before, her niece, Soraya M., had been executed by stoning. Here, after Sahebjam sets forth these facts, he tells Soraya's story, based on his interviews with the aunt, the village's mayor, and others: Though a faithful wife and devoted mother, Soraya, 35, was a lonely woman who kept to herself, in part because of her bad marriage to one Ghorban-Ali, a low-life who, aligning himself with Khomeini, had risen to power in the village even as he abused his wife, visited prostitutes, and carried on with a younger woman. Meanwhile, one Hassan Lajevardi, pederast and felon, had murdered a magistrate in a nearby city and fled to Kupayeh, where he took control of the town by posing as a mullah. But despite his clerical garb, Lajevardi made a pass at Soraya, which she rejected. Soon, Ghorban-Ali--who wished his wife gone-- and the incensed Lajevardi began to plot. Roping other villagers into their scheme, they accused Soraya of adultery; as dictated by custom, the men of the village met and voted a sentence: death by stoning. As the villagers circled around her, Soraya was buried up to her shoulders. Her father threw the first stone; more flew until she died. The village women then laid Soraya at a nearby river, where, the following day, her aunt found the body savaged by dogs. She washed and buried the bones, and ``then, and only then, did she pray and burst into tears.'' An unforgettable indictment, brilliantly written and translated, of man's inhumanity to woman--and of tyranny disguised as righteousness. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Soraya M.'s husband, Ghorban-Ali, couldn't afford to marryanotherwoman. Rather than returning Soraya's dowry, as custom required beforetaking asecond wife, he plotted with four friends and a counterfeit mullah todispose ofher. Together, they accused Soraya of adultery. Her only crime was cookingfor afriend's widowed husband. Exhausted by a lifetime of abuse and hardship,Sorayasaid nothing, and the makeshift tribunal took her silence as a confessionofguilt. They sentenced her to death by stoning: a punishment prohibited byIslambut widely practiced. Day by day+sometimes minute by minute+Sahebjamdeftlyrecounts these horrendous events, tracing Soraya's life with searingimmediacy,from her arranged marriage and the births of her nine children to herhusband'sincreasing cruelty and her horrifying execution, where, by tradition, herfather, husband, and sons hurled the first stones. This is one woman's story, but it stands for the stories of thousandsofwomen who suffered+and continue to suffer+the same fate. It is a storythat mustbe told.