A sad tale..

An Iranian widow sentenced to death by stoning for adultery has been lashed 99 times for ''spreading corruption and indecency'' after a newspaper published an alleged picture of her without a headscarf, her son said last night.
Sakineh Mohammad Ashtiani, 43, was convicted of "adultery while being married" and given the death penalty after a trial over her husband's murder in 2006.
The widow's son Sajad, 22, has campaigned for her to be released and after the plight caused international uproar her execution was halted in July.
But supporters' hopes have been dashed after Sajad said that his mother has been whipped 99 times after an apparent picture of her without traditional head-dress appeared in The Times last week.
The newspaper quickly withdrew the picture claiming it was of a different Iranian woman living in Sweeden but Sajad now fears that his mother could be hanged.
He said the photograph was an excuse to punish his mother and that the hardline Iranian government's real purpose was to silence the international campaign to save her.
'If it wasn’t the picture they would have found another excuse to try and silence her supporters outside Iran', he said.
The Times said that it had been sent the photo “in good faith” by Mohammad Mostafaei, who was Sakineh’s lawyer in Tehran until he was forced to flee Iran at the end of July for publicising her plight.

Outrage: Sakineh's plight has caused international uproar and her supporters hope that her death sentence will be quashed
There was no immediate independent confirmation of her son Sajad’s claim that the latest whipping sentence against his mother had been imposed or carried out.
Sajad has now begged Pope Benedict XVI to stop his mother’s execution. The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that no formal appeal had reached the Vatican. But he hinted that Vatican diplomacy might be employed to try to save Ashtiani.
He said: 'The Holy See is following the case with attention and interest.
'When the Holy See is asked, in an appropriate way, to intervene in humanitarian issues with the authorities of other countries, as it has happened many times in the past, it does so not in a public way, but through its own diplomatic channels.'
In response, the Vatican has raised the possibility of using behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to spare Sakineh’s life.
But the mother-of-two could still face execution by hanging – and she was reportedly subjected to a mock execution last week.
And an extreme state-run newspaper last week branded Carla Bruni, France’s first lady, a “prostitute” after she condemned the stoning sentence against Sakineh.
Sakineh's ordeal began when she was lashed 99 times in 2006 after being convicted of having an ‘illicit relations” with two men following her husband’s death.
Sajad, then just 17, chose to witness the flogging because he did not want his mother to suffer the terrifying and humiliating punishment alone.
Sajad said yesterday that his mother was strong at the time but expressed grave concern she could endure similar punishment now. “She has deteriorated so much since and, as she has been denied visits, we have no way of finding out how she’s coping,” he said.
Sakineh was originally acquitted of complicity in her husband’s murder but found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.
But when her case provoked international outrage in recent weeks, the Iranian authorities claimed she was an accomplice in her husband’s murder. Her lawyers have accused the government of inventing new charges against her.
Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said yesterday that a 'gesture of clemency from Iran is the only thing that can save

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309265/Iranian-woman-lashed-99-...