The stoning scene to me was all necessary and not too long (stonings have been reported to be over one hour). As a western woman I needed the media to show me what would take place, how she would die, how the village would execute this. It is played out realistically but I do not know if it is accurate as a stoning for a woman, she should be buried up to her neck, the waist is for the man. I now know if the portrayal is accurate that there are no stones thrown to the back of the head. This would imply that the smallish stones would have to break her skull and damage the frontal brain and sides. This is a slow,and painful, tortuous death. The rocks were thrown at a good distance so there had to be some very, very strong forces coming from the men to penetrate her skull.
I needed this scene to understand.

If Iranian women are portrayed accurately here then even without rights and protection they have tremendous strength of character and courage and live in spite of the culture they are in. I found alot of power in these women who even spoke their minds and spoke the truth regardless that their words would not have any effect. The truth is spoken from them and they act on it because they must.

Now that this has been brought to the screen I feel I have a more acurate portrayal of what is still happening today to women and no longer exists as a hypothetical understanding.

I could write an essay but my reason for writing here was to comment on the strength of the women,their ability to accept, their integrity, and tremendous courage. Incredible. Made by Hollywood? Extremely incredible !

I think Dina has a point as it relates to the movie because perhaps by having the main character a faithful and religious person, in addition to being entirely innocent, the filmmaker could get the audience to immediately sympathize with Soraya’s situation and everything she faced. As a result, a viewer will be more open to the film’s message[s]. When Soraya says at the end, “How could you do this do anyone[,]” I think it suggests that this practice is supposed to be questioned in the case of any person – guilty or innocent. By having it coming from someone who there was no reason to have this befall them, in the eyes of religion or basic humanity, it gives her voice more credibility.

I reminded my father that the problem with the supposed outrages of (fundamentalist) Islam isn’t a problem with Islam, but a problem with fundamentalism whether it be Muslim, Christian, Judaic, or what have you. Even Marxist-Leninists, who were ostensibly not religious at all, suffered from abuses of power caused by their own brand of fundamentalism. Would a theocracy in the U.S. be much better? Think Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

He thought about it and agreed, particularly as history of the Catholic church is just brimming with pogroms, inquisitions, witch hunts and holy wholesale slaughter. No faith, dogma or persuasion is immune from it. Even Buddhists within Tibet benefited from a hierarchical cast system and weren’t exactly nice the peasants.

For people slow on the uptake, or rendered fuzzy by their own bias, The Stoning of Soroya M has a character who could have been right out of central casting: “Mullah” Hassan, the Potemkin cleric. Freidoune Sahebjan’s book makes it even clearer what a dangerous fraud this man was. He is of a type with Elmer Gantry, Ted Haggard, all the way back to Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The Stoning of Soraya M is a story that could be told in many times, many places, about many faiths. It’s only about Islam to the extent that it took place in Iran. But it could and has happened many places where there have been lynching and witch hunts. It exposes the all-too-human tendency towards hypocrisy, false piety, dogma of convenience, the malice and stupidity of people in groups and wrapping fascism in faith and flag.

People who think this film is anti-Islam, or want it to be, should take Zahra warning to Soraya to heart: “You never learned to listen between the words”.

I haven’t watched anything Bollywood, for about six years now, but I wanted to give this different genre a chance. On my mother’s side of the family their Caribbean Hindu, and Muslim, among others … So watching this gave me an insight into another types of movies that are out there, and this was a great movie. Before, and after I googled what I could find on the movie, and related etc … Glad I found this website.

I did tear up a lot, and I admit I have a sort of headache. What bothered me even more was when Leila (the gossiper) spoke ill of Soraya when she knew nothing! Women as well can be just as bad, and I noticed that she threw her hands up when they threw the stones at her

;/

I didn’t have to share that with you all, but I just thought I would.