17 July 2006 :
Turkish women organizations joined the growing international campaign for Iranian woman prisoner Melek Ghorbany who was sentenced to death by stoning on June 28, by a court in the northwest Iranian city of Urmia after being found guilty of committing adultery.Representatives of women organizations in Istanbul will meet in front of the Iranian consulate building to read out a press statement expected to condemn the practice of public stoning.
A statement made in advance of the event said the organizations regarded public stoning as “a crime against humanity” and that they would effort for the Iranian regime to end this form of punishment.
The organizations will also call on all other punishments passed under Islamic Shariah law to be abolished in Iran and everyone sentenced to stoning, including Gharbany herself, to be released.
The campaign to stop the execution of Ghorbany was originally launched a week previously by her American lawyer Lily Mazahery who had so far collected nearly 2,000 signatures and was hoping to collect many more.
(Sources: BIA News Center, 14/07/2006)