Nayereh Tohidi, a lecturer at the University of California...

Nayereh Tohidi, a lecturer at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), in an interview with Radio Free Europe, said stoning is a double-standard punishment: "There is a double standard here, even though the practice is applied to both men and women, because it is usually a punishment implemented in regards to sexually related offences, like adultery. Women are more susceptible to blame for sexual misbehaviour therefore more likely to be stoned to death than men. It all goes back to a double standard of sexuality and an obsession with sexual offences as being the most important issue, from the clerics' point of view, as the source of corruption in the society. While they easily ignore the problems of [drug] addiction and bribery, they cannot forgive sexual offences."
The practice of stoning is controversial not only for international rights groups but also within Iran itself. Tohidi says it has been criticized in the past by former President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who called it a backward practice carried out by judges in rural areas. But women's rights specialists say that the practice remains unchallenged in Iran because judges are allowed to apply their own selective interpretations of the law. Tohidi says: "There is no Koranic command to use stoning to death as a way of punishing men or women. Nevertheless, this has been practised sporadically in some provinces of Iran by some Islamic judges, some mullahs, based on their own selective interpretation and selective use of some traditions."
Elahe Hicks of Human Rights Watch said that some officials told her that they do not approve of stoning as punishment for adultery because of the difficulty of proving criminal adultery has actually occurred. Under Iran's Islamic law, proving that an act of adultery has been committed requires four fair and unbiased witnesses. Or the guilty party has to confess four times. But critics say the witness requirements are not fully observed in many cases and confessions may be extracted under duress. That makes many human rights activists question whether defendants in adultery cases in fact receive fair trials. International human rights leaders have repeatedly expressed their concern over stoning cases to top Iranian officials, but they say they have received no response. Hicks said that both UN special investigator on Iran for human rights Maurice Copithorne and [former] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson took up the case of Maryam Ayoubi, condemned to death by stoning in July 2000, with top Iranian officials, but the officials said they were not aware of the case. While most attention over stoning has focused on its targeting of women and on the suffering of the victims, some critics says stoning creates other hidden victims: those members of the public who are taught to accept the practice as normal and to take part in it. "Actually, many people do not participate, but those who do are already indoctrinated to accept this violent behaviour as part of their ethical and religious duties and this will help perpetuate a violent mentality," Tohidi said.