Afghan Woman Reportedly Stoned to Death

Mixed reports are circulating that an Afghan woman was stoned to death for reportedly committing adultery in the northeastern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. According to BBC News, Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission stated that that the 29-year-old woman, Amina, was sentenced to death by a decree from a local religious scholar.

A witness told Reuters that Amina was dragged out of her home by local officials and her husband, who then stoned her to death. The man she reportedly committed adultery with was flogged and whipped 100 times and then was freed.

The provincial police chief, Shah Jahan Noori, confirmed to Reuters that Amina had been stoned to death. However, the Associated Press reports that Noori said, “With the fundamentalists and the hardline mullahs who are in that area, these things are not impossible … but I know that in this case, she was not stoned.” The deputy governor of the province, Haji Shamsul Rahman, told the AP that the woman’s father killed his own daughter out of shame. It is still unclear whether Amina was killed by her own father in an “honor killing” or if she was stoned to death by local officials for reportedly committing adultery.

Meanwhile, after pressure by the United States, the United Nations has removed its human right monitor in Afghanistan. An unnamed US official said that the move was in part because the human rights situation in Afghanistan was no longer bad enough to warrant the position, according to the LA Times.

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Media Resources: BBC News 4/23/05; The Associated Press 4/25/05; Reuters 4/24/05; LA Times 4/25/05

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