Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Book Review: The Stoning of Soraya M.



I just finished reading The Stoning of Soraya M. If you're looking for something utterly disturbing to read, I highly recommend this book. The book details the true story of an Iranian woman named Soraya who was stoned to death for allegedly committing adultery -- a false accusation made upon her by her cheating, wife-beating, evil husband who wanted to divorce her so he could marry a teenage bride. I'm not sure what the worst part of the story was, her having been stoned by her father and sons, or the con-artist Sheik not allowing her body to be buried and thus being eaten by stray dogs.

My friend Lily had left this book at my house almost two years ago when she visited me in Hanoi. I never had the inclination to read it until all of the news reports last week about a woman who was sentenced to be stoned to death in Iran. It's completely mind boggling to me how something like this can still go on in our modern world.

I just googled the book to find a picture for this post and saw that there is a movie based on the book that came out this year. If you don't have time to read the book, check out the movie.