Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (Vorlage:Lang-fa, born 1967—) is an Iranian Azeri woman who is convicted to death by stoning in Iran for the crime of adultery. She was first tried on May 15, 2006 by a court in Tabriz, pleading guilty to the crime of "illicit relationship" with two men, though the incident occurred after the death of her husband. She was sentenced to whipping of 99 lashes, which was carried out.

In September 2006 her case was again brought up when a separate court was prosecuting one of the two men for involvement in the death of Mohammadi Ashtiani's husband. Though she was acquitted of involvement in his death, she was then convicted of adultery while still married and sentenced to death by stoning. She later retracted her confession to this crime, claiming it was made under duress, and that she she doesn't speak Farsi, but instead only Turkish. The Iranian supreme court confirmed her death sentence on May 27, 2007, such that only a pardon from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could prevent the execution.

A campaign by her two children succeeded in halting Mohammadi Ashtiani's imminent execution in July 2010, but not in overturning her death sentence. Protests occurred in London and Washington, D.C., among other cities. Calls to stop her execution came from groups such as Human Rights Watch, and by Laureen Harper and actors Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Robert Redford, Lindsay Lohan, and Juliette Binoche. Her current fate remains unknown. Iranian officials have rejected that she was to be executed by stoning, and described the story as "claims by media and human rights groups", and reporters in Iran have been banned from reporting on the case.