The Stoning of Soraya M.

This week, the news of an Iranian boy pleading to the world to help him stop the stoning of his mother flashed everywhere. Iran is denying the news. But to tell the truth, we really don't know what is happening or has been happening there or in any other Islamic nations where adultery is punishable to the extreme. A few years back, I would have not even imagined how cruel the punishment maybe. The news of the stoning reminded me of a film I saw a few months back and I got back the shivers and sleepless nights. The name of the film is "The stoning of Soraya M."

The film is set in 1986 Iran. It starts with a group of burkha clad women trying to shoo away a dog whose trying to eat something buried near the stream. Simultaneously a French-Iranian journalist is shown around the area getting his car repaired. A lady named Zahra tries to talk to him, but the men who see that ask the journalist to ignore her as a crazy woman. Zahra tries a few times and succeeds in throwing a note at him saying that she wants to talk to him about a terrible incident that took place there yesterday.

The Frenchman meets Zahra in her house. She is there with 2 small girls who seemed pretty scared on the arrival of an unknown person in the house. The man knowing the Iranian customs, asks Zahra to talk her mind soon. She offers him tea and pleads him to record whatever she will be saying. After denying the request a few times, he finally agrees.

Zahra starts with "the devil himself came her last evening", and she started telling the story of her niece Soraya who was stoned to death the previous day.

Soraya was a woman who lived with her husband, 2 daughters and 2 sons. Her husband was working in the jail. He disliked his wife and daughters and taught his sons the same. He was beginning to get bored of his wife, as he had eyes on a 14-year old girl of a prisoner whom he wished to marry. Tortured by the husbands cruel talks and beatings, Soraya leaves her house with her daughters and goes to live with her aunt Zahra. Zahra is a respectable woman in the area and is often called upon by the villagers to help them out whenever in need.

One day a neighbors ill wife dies and Zahra and Soraya help the man, who is a mechanic, and his retarded son get through with the rituals. Meanwhile Soraya had been deciding on divorcing her husband. But she didn't have enough money to support herself and her daughters. So Zahra requests the village mayor if Soraya could cook and look after the mechanic's son. This way Soraya could earn a living and the mechanic's son would also be taken care of.

Soraya's husband didn't like the thought of his wife divorcing him and making a living. So he started thinking of ways to get rid of her. He kept a keen watch on her. A slightest sign of Soraya being not loyal to her work would be enough of a reason to complain her to the authorities.

Soraya was an honorable woman and her only aim in life now was a good life for herzself and her daughters. But her husband along with the village priest plotted a plan to permanently get rid of her by charging her with false allegations of infidelity and adultery. The punishment will be death.

It was Soraya's hard luck that day. She was accused of having a relationship with the mechanic, though she was a married woman. This was totally false, as Soraya was just doing her job. Somehow the allegations were ruled true and only one punishment was considered - stoning her to death by the end of the day. Soraya and Zahra's pleads went unheard.

After a couple of hours, she was handcuffed and told to kneel down in waist-deep dug hole. She was then covered with mud waist down. The stoning started and among the stoners were he own sons and husband, who took joy in doing the job. (I forwarded the whole sequence. I couldn't continue watching.)

Next day after the torturous incident, does the mayor comes to know the facts and the false allegations. But it was too late.

Zahra was now telling the journalist that the story needs to be told to the whole world and she needs his help in doing so. The French journalist already shaken with Zahra's story does help her and thus we get to know how it happened.

To watch the film, you need tons of courage. It is not for the weak at heart. I was completely aware of what I was going to get to see, but still I saw it with continuously wiping off my tears. My brain became numb and I couldn't stop thinking about Soraya. For the next few days, I couldn't drive nor cook properly. I was getting cramps in my head, as if thousands of ants trying to chew off my brain. I didn't sleep well the next few days.

But then I prayed for the countless innocent souls like Soraya and also prayed that I was happy to be born in a great country where I am anytime able to speak for myself. Whenever we feel low, always remember the less fortunate and thank God for giving us a chance to live our life to the fullest.

For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freidoune_Sahebjam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stoning_of_Soraya_M.