Source:
August 12, 2010

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains,

but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

– Nelson Mandela

Dear Mr. Mandela,

I am writing to appeal to you to intervene immediately in order to help save the life of a woman sentenced to be stoned to death or, at least, hanged imminently in Iran. Her Name is Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiaani, which, I presume, you are familiar with by now through the news about the on-going global campaign to save her life and free her from jail.

One example of the international efforts in this direction has been the offer of asylum for Sakineh and her family in Brazil by President Lula da Silva. Although the offer has been rejected by the regime, which, to all intents and purposes, is intent on killing her, it is an example the world needs to see followed by other heads of states. It will increase the international pressure – a tremendously effective force to which the Islamist regime will in the end have to surrender.

According to well documented published figures by the International Committee Against Stoning that I represent (), the regime has so far stoned 109 men and women to death, and there are 25 more agonizingly awaiting their turn. Surely, this tragedy cannot be allowed to continue. I therefore also appeal to you to take any action in your power to wrest this terroristic weapon from the grasp of this regime, as well as that of the other similar regimes, with the help of the civilized humanity your global respect will no doubt enlist. Therefore, I hereby appeal to you to not only save Sakineh but also support the demand for the immediate abolition of stoning in Iran and throughout the world.

Further, I would not presume to describe the horrors of living under a theocratic regime of the most deprave nature to you, Nelson Mandel. Its whole 31-year track record can be summed up in one word: terror. Thanks to ruling by sheer terror, it has managed to create a whole system of sexual, social, ethnic, racial and even religious apartheid in Iran which takes its victims, naturally, from across the social/sexual spectrum. However, as you are certainly well aware, a mass revolutionary movement has been underway in Iran since June 2009, bent on overthrowing this regime of terror and apartheid.

Parallel with the advance of the movement the regime has stepped up its atrocious, terror-instilling crimes not only in Iran but across the world in the delusional hope of ensuring its survival. As far as the international community is concerned, the only feasible, civilized and least painful way for it to truly rid itself of this global menace is to support the Iranian people’s revolutionary movement. For this to materialize, the first step has to be the total banishment of the Islamist regime from the rest of humanity.

The modern world simply must refuse to recognize a barbaric regime that stones people to death. All its embassies must be closed; all its medley of ‘centers’ and ‘societies’ must be closed; all political ties with it must be broken; it must be expelled from all international bodies; etc.

Total political boycott! Total South Africanization of the apartheid regime in Iran, in line with what the united humanity finally did to bring apartheid down to its knees in South Africa! Nothing short of that will work. And here the civilized humanity naturally expects to see the South Africa of today bear the standard of struggle once again.

Yours truly,

Mina Ahadi

Spokesperson

International Committee Against Stoning () and

International Committee Against Execution ()