On a hot day in late August, 1996, a crowd of people gathered in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Taliban had been in power in that area for two years. The leader of the local mosque spoke briefly about the rules for stoning adulterers in the Sharia, then the lovers were brought out.
They had probably been turned in by the woman’s two teenage sons. When the Taliban received the accusation, they had a group of religious police hide on the roof of an adjoining house. Afghanistan gets hot in the summer and people sleep on the flat roofs of their homes. The couple was alone on the roof when the religious police sprang out and caught them red-handed.
The 40-year-old woman was lowered waist-deep in a pit and the man was positioned a short distance away. The area was crowded with people, but space was made so that relatives of the condemned pair, including small children, could have a clear view. It was important that they see the type of justice imposed by the Taliban.
Then the leader of the mosque, following tradition, stooped to pick up the first palm-sized stone. The stones had to be of a size that would injure but not kill. Others immediately joined in, and within ten minutes both of them were dead.
Among the twenty people who gathered in front of the mosque to tell reporters about the event, none expressed misgivings. To the contrary, all spoke with enthusiasm of the killings. A 60-year-old teacher said, “It was a good thing, the only way to end this kind of sinning.”
Surprisingly, this kind of punishment is still occurring in Afghanistan today, 14 years after the Taliban was driven out. The Afghan government, our ally, has even considered making stoning part of the law of the land and not just local tribal tradition.
Westerners like us are horrified. It is also practiced in Somalia and Iran and now Syria. But did you know that there are no references to stoning in the Quran? Muslims turn to stories from Mohammed’s life (the Haddith) to find examples of stoning, and these mostly follow the rules that Jews laid down in the Torah… rules that 2,000 years ago were used to confront Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus added a rule of his own – the first stones must be cast by those who are sinless. Because of this, stoning is not practiced in nations that have been influenced by Christianity.
[Technically, the Old Testament says that adulterers are to be put to death (means not specified) while those who engage in premarital sex are to be stoned.]
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Adapted by David Holwick from “Stoning of Afghan Adulterers: Some Go to Take Part, Others Just to Watch,” John F. Burns, The New York Times, November 3, 1996, < http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/03/world/stoning-of-afghan-adulterers-some-go-to-take-part-others-just-to-watch.html >; and “Adulterers may be stoned under new Afghan law, official says,” Mirwais Harooni and Katharine Houreld, Reuters, November 25, 2013, < http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/25/us-afghanistan-rights-idUSBRE9AO0EB20131125 >.