“Hajieh to be the first saved from stoning”

Behareh Davalloo was the lawyer of Hajieh Esmalivand, a woman who was sentenced to stoning in 2006. Davalloo was also the director of the Independent Society of Attorneys, and member of the Network of Volunteer Lawyers, the Women’s Centre for Legal Counseling, and the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign. Davalloo represented Hajieh since August 19, 2006, and was able to schedule a retrial on November 7, 2006. She had been in prison for seven years awaiting a stoning sentence for adultery. Davalloo detailed her case and how the Network of Volunteer Lawyers and the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign was able to successfully fight her stoning sentence and prove her innocence. Hajieh’s case is important because it was the first broadly publicized case of stoning since the 2002 moratorium and was the first instance of the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign successfully saving a potential victim of stoning.