Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Shohreh Aghdashloo

posted by Women & Hollywood
Friday, July 16, 2010 at 11:42am CDT

First things first. If you haven’t seen The Stoning of Soraya M. you must. It’s a very intense and well done film about a young woman who is accused of adultery and is put to death in the town square. The stoning scene is very hard to watch but the reality is that this is no ancient custom. It is happening now.

A woman in Iran, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, was thisclose to being stoned to death for adultery. She was arrested in 2005 and was given 99 lashes witnessed by one of her sons. She rescinded her confession which she said was made under duress and has been in jail under a death sentence since then.

There has been a tremendous outcry across the world not to carry out the sentence. For right now it is on hold.

Shohreh Aghdashloo played a character in The Stoning of Soraya M. who spoke out and revealed what happened in her community. She was ostracized and threatened for her honesty.

Aghdashloo is using her bully pulpit to get the Iranian government to reconsider the sentence and also to raise more attention about the issue. Here’s what she said:

“There’s always hope when we all get together, the people of the universe, regardless of our barriers and our colors and our religions and our background and our nationality. When we get together, we can do something.”

I just can’t believe this still goes on in the 21st century.
Shohreh Aghdashloo speaks out against stoning (AP)
The Practice Of Stoning Condemned (VOA)