The Stoning of Soraya M.

Rating:
Summary: Don't feel sorry for us.
Review: I'm an iranian women who has a strong opnion about this book. First of all, it makes me sick, almost as much as when I read this book, to have to listen to americans and other non-iranians to talk about how iranian culture must change. There is NOTHING wrong with iranian culture thank you very much, we like it a lot.. However must these 22 year old laws (yhays how old they are) in Iran allows such crime against human beings, including stoning BOTH men AND women (guess you didn't know that, did you???) And these laws will change, there are people in iranians prisons right this minute who are in there only because they have tried to make the country democratic. And they (we) will succed sooner or later (hopefully without another interference from the big country in the west). Yes, the laws suck, but reasons why writers like Fereydoun Sahebjaam or movie makers like Jafar Panahi brings up this subjects is not for world to feel sorry for Iranian women (and men who also suffer) but to know what's going on. These moviemakers and writers put their lifes at stake to help us, not to bring down our culture who all iranians love. And for all of you who think: "Well wasn't it nice of betty mahmoody(when will she change her last name?) to write about iranian womens situation", then I have only one thing to say. If she had wrote a similar book about lets say our jewish brothers and sister then that book would have not make it to the market. It would have been considered anti-semitic but I guess we're not that lucky. Like I said, this book is about power abuse NOT about culture. After all, the american soldier raping women in Vietnam(an example) wasn't a cultural act was it? I didn't think so. Ariana (=daughter of Iran)

Rating:
Summary: Truth that needs airing
Review: In response to a book that documents utter barbarity occuring in Iran, Ariana chooses to spit at the West. Sorry Ariana, this is your cultural tradition, you have to account for it or change it. It is very telling that ARIANA writes from SWEDEN, a civilized country that respects human rights and women's rights in particular. Perhaps the available Islamic paradises are not to Ariana's taste. Unfortunately Sharia law, an invention of Islam is spreading in Nigeria and is very present in Sudan where stonings just like this are occurring now in March of 2002. The author was brave to document this atrocity and should be commended.

Rating:
Summary: A tragic story not unheard of in other parts of the world
Review: Reading The Stoning of Soraya is a nightmare trip into unrestrained depravity. Some passages are so horrible that this reader skipped over them. The society that produced this event has a dark side that most of us would not even want to think about. Thank God I live in the United States. The next time I read some fuzzy nonsense about accepting all cultural diversity, I am going to remember this book

Rating:
Summary: A tragic story not unheard of in other parts of the world
Review: You will be shocked by this sotry if you have basically adhered to la-la land stories and main stream best seller novels. Otherwise if you have travelled and have read other similar tragic stories and crimes committed again woman in most parts of the world, this is just another barbaric tragedy. What I found amazing was the review of the American reader who wrote that next time he/she hears "fuzzy nonsense about accepting all cultural diversity" he/she will remember this book.... How typical of an American to judge and comment on a culture and cultural diversity by just reading one book about it. Aren't similar crimes happening on a daily basis all over the world? If I remember correctly from living in the States for 7 years, New York City used to be called the world's murder capitat. Are gang rapes and murders that unheard of in the States? This book is not about an acceptable ritual or custom in Iran; this book is about dark crimes committed against single individuals.