Sensationalist Film Exploits Human Rights Issue in Iran (AI)

[struggle4progress]

By Elise Auerbach, Iran Specialist for Amnesty International USA

... sometimes a film can so distort an important human rights issue that it may do more harm than good to the cause. Sadly, this is the case with the new movie opening this Friday, The Stoning of Soraya M, the purportedly true story of the brutal execution by stoning of an innocent Iranian village woman. For one thing, the film is marked by crude story-telling: the main character, Soraya, is merely a mutely suffering victim while her brutish husband, who falsely accuses her of adultery so that he can marry a teen-aged girl, is a cardboard caricature of evil and malice. More importantly, aside from the numerous inaccuracies and implausibilities, the climax of the film -- a bloody and prolonged stoning scene with villagers mercilessly pelting the victim -- is so sensationalized that the audience response is likely to be disgust and revulsion at Iranians themselves, who are portrayed as primitive and blood-thirsty savages ...

By criticizing the film, I am not dismissing the importance of the issue. Amnesty International issued a major report on stoning in January 2008, in which it is described how this form of execution is prescribed for adultery -- although in practice, it is usually adultery in conjunction with some other crime, such as being an accessory to the murder of a husband. Furthermore, stonings are carried out in prison yards by government agents, not by members of the community.

Crucially, we must look at stoning in the overall context of executions in Iran. Stonings represent a tiny fraction of executions in that country. Iran executes more people than any other country in the world except for China. In 2008 it executed at least 346, the overwhelming majority of whom were executed by hanging, sometimes for politically motivated offenses, and often after flawed legal proceedings ...

I would urge those who really want to see important social issues in Iran critically examined to check out some of the great films made in Iran, such as A Time for Drunken Horses which deals with poverty among Iran's Kurdish minority, The Day I Became a Woman and As Simple As That about the frustrations experienced by women in Iran, and Santoori, which deals with drug addiction ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amnesty-international/sensationalist-film-explo_b_220252.html

[oberliner]

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