http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=MIDEAST

MAY 01, 17:07 EDT

Taliban Stone Woman for Adultery

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban religious rulers stoned a woman to death in northern Afghanistan on Monday after she was found guilty of committing adultery.

The woman, identified only as Suriya by Taliban-run Radio Shariat, was said to have confessed to adultery, a capital offense in this war-ravaged nation. The radio did not say what happened to the man involved. He was identified as Abdul Jabbar.

The stoning was carried out at a sports stadium in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan before a crowd of several thousand spectators, according to the radio report.

In the 90 percent of Afghanistan that it rules, the Taliban religious army has imposed a harsh brand of Islamic law. Punishments are harsh and public.

The last execution of a woman in Taliban territory was last November, when a woman was shot three times by a Taliban soldier after she was found guilty of killing her abusive husband with an ax. She was the mother of seven children.

-- Maya (Maya@eck.is), May 02, 2000

Answers

Maya-- How sad that these horrible customs still go on, and that in some countries, women are still treated worse than the family pet.

-- dory (crtwheel@eburg.com), May 02, 2000.

Sickening. Hey, can't we blame this on the Christians?

-- (nemesis@awol.com), May 02, 2000.

Good thing this doesn't go on here in the States. We would soon run out of stones. What happens to the men? If they get the same treatment, then our population will drop by half in short order.

-- Richard (Astral-Acres@webtv.net), May 02, 2000.

A statement issued in the Afghan capital of Kabul by the Taliban foreign ministry dismissed the report [of terrorism] as biased. ``It shows that the United States is ignorant of our history and our religion. Islam forbids terrorism,'' the statement said.

That's right, it only approves of barbaric death by stoning as spectator sports. But no terrorism!

-- Ban the Taliban (ban@taliban.now), May 02, 2000.