I just read this article in The New York Times about the exact opposite happening: punishment by religion. In Iran, a women convicted of adultery may be stoned to death. Stoned. And it's a shocking thing to media systems both there and here. It's shocking in Iran, because they are actually talking about it in the media-- a clip of the woman calling herself a sinner was shown on state-owned television. It's shocking in the United States, because of the severity of the punishment of adultery, and because her son specifically told people who knew about the situation to lie to foreign western media, to make it less of a deal.
So this brings up two good aspects:
- Because of the government's and her own strict following of the Muslim faith, this Iranian woman may be stoned to death (the punishment is under review by the court-- but she may still be executed in a different way), because she was convicted of having an illicit relationship. Is this religious freedom?
- It was controversial in Iran, because this story was broadcast on television. The woman's lawyer told her son to lie to western media, saying it would be prudent. Is this media freedom?
Iran has a "Stop Stoning Forever" Campaign
I find this blog as whole to be very interesting because I feel that religious freedom is viewed so differently throughout different cultures. I also believe that religion was used to create a community and spread messages to a audience at a very early stage of human development.
ReplyDeleteThis entry is very disturbing to me because of the way that a country as populated as Iran still views religion in such a fundamental way. The woman in this story seems to almost accept the sentence of death because of the extreme cultural views. I can't believe she told her son to not tell anyone because it was "not prudent" to western culture. It is as if they know that this sentence of stoning to death because of an illicit relationship is ancient and inhumane.
At least the media is allowed to write and report on this story. It at least shows that they are making progress in their media relations with the government and it's people. However, through the progress of their media freedom, they still are not anywhere close in progressing in religious freedoms.
Thanks for your thoughts. You said, at least the media is allowed to write and report. - Definitely, that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteEven so, though, with the lawyer telling the son NOT to tell western media what was happening, media freedom is still in question. The lawyer, a professional, knew that this would look bad to western cultures and wanted it to be covered up. So media relations within their own country may be improving, but in media relations around the globe they must see a disconnect of freedom.
Wow. I agree with David in the fact that it's almost haunting how accepting the woman seems to be about her punishment.
ReplyDeleteWhat I also find interesting is that this woman knew that the U.S. would make a "big deal" out of this religious issue in the media. What does that say about other countries' perception of our media? Did she think we'd blow the incident out of proportion, or did she not want us to negatively talk about her religion and its practices? Maybe a little of both?