FEMNET condemns the stoning to death of a Woman in Somali

Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, who had been found guilty of adultery, was buried in the ground up to her neck while the men pelted her head with rocks.

FEMNET condemns such acts in the strongest terms and call upon all women activists to condemn this act and demand for total abolition of stoning worldwide.

We further condemn the killing of an innocent child who was shot dead by guards when her parents who are relatives of Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow surged forward to try and rescue Aisho from being stoned to death.

We call upon all Islamic organizations to speak against stoning and actively participate in campaigns to abolish stoning. FEMNET is further disturbed that such act target women and leave out the male culprit.

We Urges the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to mandate the Special Rapporteur on Torture to come up with a lasting solution to such barbaric and inhuman acts.

According to the United Nations Convention against Torture, stoning is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Stoning is against articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of articles 6 and 7 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantee the right to life and prohibit torture and inhuman treatment as well as the Second Facultative Protocol to the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty.

For further information Contact: Carlyn Hambuba Communication Officer: [email][email protected]
TEL: +254 20 2712971/2

Norah Matovu-Winyi
Executive Director- FEMNET

Background
MOGADISHU (AFP) — Thousands of people gathered Monday to witness 50 Somali men stone a woman to death after an Islamic court in the southern port of Kismayo found her guilty of adultery, witnesses said.

Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, who had been found guilty of extra-marital intercourse was buried in the ground up to her neck while the men pelted her head with rocks.

"Our sister Aisha asked the Islamic Sharia court in Kismayo to be charged and punished for the crime she committed," local Islamist leader Sheikh Hayakallah told the crowd.

"She admitted in front of the court to engaging in adulterous sexual intercourse," he added.

"She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to apply."

The execution was carried in one of the city's main squares.
The port of Kismayo was seized in August by a coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan Turki, and the Shebab, the country's main radical Islamist insurgent organization.

Turki is listed as a terrorist financier by Washington.

The new administration formed there began implementing a strict form of Sharia (Islamic law).

"This afternoon we are telling the people of Kismayo that we are practising a punishment that is rare in this region and was carried out in Kismayo for the first time," Sheikh Hayakallah said.

Cameras were banned from the public stoning but print and radio journalists were allowed to attend.