International news reports on Aug. 1 indicated that Brazilian President Luis Inacto Lula de Silva had offered sanctuary to an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who had been convicted of adultery (six months after her husband had died!) and sentenced to death by stoning.
This alleged "crime" happened in East Azerbaijan province. She has been imprisoned in Tabriz since 2006, and already received 99 lashes.
Because of the international uproar, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad personally intervened at the last moment to stay her execution at the request of President de Silva. He assured his Brazilian counterpart that Ashtiani will not be executed by stoning. However, if the case is upheld after review, she faces execution by the more "humane" process of hanging.
Ahmadinijad emphasized the "fairness" of Islamic law, and said that because of it, there is no way she will be allowed to leave Iran without being punished to the letter of the law, which is death.
(The Mail of London reported Sept. 1, "In preparation for her death, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani wrote her will and embraced her cellmates in Tabriz prison. But the mother of two, who was who was acquitted of murdering her husband but found guilty of adultery, was not led to the gallows." The newspaper described it as a "mock execution.")
On Aug. 13, the BBC's Middle East Service reported that Russia will begin charging the fuel for Iran's first nuclear reactor located in the port city of Bushehr. In about a month, the plant will begin to operate, supplying Iranians with electricity.
The plant was begun 35 years ago under the Shah's regime. Russia signed a $1-billion contract with Iran in 1995 to get the plant up and running. Now, Russia will operate the plant, supplying the fuel rods and transporting the spent rods (which will contain plutonium) back to Russia, under the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).
However, the IAEC has no authority to be on site, so they'll be issuing their reports based upon the reports the agency receives from the Russians and Iranians.
Of course, with the established track records of both Russia and Iran, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, can't we? More likely we can't.
The plutonium in the spent rods is of weapons grade. Vladimir Putin, who headed the KGB when the Soviet Union was still intact, loves living the high life and is a very petty and vindictive man. Ahmadinijad has been trying to purchase or develop nuclear weapons since he took office.
Somehow, under these conditions, I don't see all this plutonium getting back to Russia. I see a couple of billion dollars in cash finding its way into a Swiss account controlled by the Putin-meister himself.
Then there's going to be the kind of mishap/mismanagement/mishandling of the plutonium that nobody can explain. Everyone will be standing there wide-eyed, saying, "Who, me?" The result is, quite possibly, that the elusive mushroom cloud everyone fears may actually appear sooner than later.
The maturity level of the various nations of the world has not evolved at a uniform pace. In the case of Iran, Ms. Ashtiani is not the only victim of gender barbarism; she's just the one in the spotlight at the moment.
I sincerely feel that we should not be putting 21st-century technology into the hands of people with 10th-century mores.
It's like putting a loaded .44 magnum revolver into the hands of a 5-year-old and saying, "Have a nice day."
• • •
Joseph Doyle, a freelance journalist living in Salem, has written previously for the opinion pages.
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