For the Love of a Son: One Afghan Woman's Quest for Her Stolen Child

king
to inquire about her age and a possible engagement, but Shair lied,
telling the king, ‘She is not yet of a marriageable age.’ Shair did
not want one of his hated half-sisters to marry into an influential
family where she might be in a position to help her mother and
siblings against his brutality.
    Years had passed since Shair had threatened
to marry Mayana off. She had almost convinced herself that he had
forgotten all about it when he summoned her once again.
    Shair said, ‘The day has come. Your marriage
has been arranged. Your husband is old, but he is rich enough, and
that is what matters.’
    Burning with determination, Mayana reached
for the poison she still carried in her snuffbox. The moment the
guards and servants realized her intent, they all jumped on her,
attempting to knock the arsenic from her hands. But Mayana was
resolute and she clung to the poison, twisting, shouting, fighting
with all her strength. However, she was finally overpowered by the
men and they snatched the poison out of her small hands.
    A red-faced Shair screeched, ‘Confine her to
her room!’
    My frightened grandmother was dragged away
and locked in her room, with guards positioned outside her door and
window.
    Grandmother’s attempt to kill herself to
avoid marrying an old man was considered a serious rebellion. Shair
swore, ‘I will not accept revolt from within my own household.’ In
a heated rage he declared that Mayana would be stoned for
disobedience.
    Servants slowly gathered to do Shair’s
bidding. Stones were gathered into tall piles in the courtyard.
    There was one elderly servant who still
mourned his former master, Ahmed Khan, and disapproved of the
cruelty of his son. He had faithfully served Mayana during the days
when she was the lady of the galah and he felt compelled to do something to save the life of a good and guiltless woman
whom his master had loved. The servant believed that only Ajab, who
was by then a teenager, could save his mother. He rushed from the
galah, travelling many hours over jagged footpaths and irregular
dirt roads. He arrived at the military school late at night,
calling for Ajab to come quickly, that he must save his mother from
an agonizing death by stoning. Stunned by the servant’s terrifying
words, my father mounted a horse and raced off to the galah. If my
father did not arrive in time, he knew exactly how his mother would
die. During that long ride his imagination took him to the macabre
scene he feared was taking place at that very moment.
    No one denies that stoning is one of the most
grisly of the various death penalties. In Afghanistan, and under
Islamic Sharia law, it is a legally sanctioned form of punishment
for the sin of adultery. It is the only capital punishment
requiring four accusers, who each must testify that they witnessed
the defendants in the act of sex. But Shair made his own law. And
he was determined to punish Mayana for her defiance.
    Accepted stoning procedures are for a narrow,
deep hole to be dug into the ground. The hands of the ‘guilty’
female are bound. Then she is lifted and placed into the
constricted hole. Dirt is packed around her so she cannot struggle.
Only her head and body from the waist up are left visible.
    A man of authority will become the stoning
cheerleader, encouraging a group of executioners, which in most
cases will only be men, to gather around a pile of stones. It is
not illegal to stone a woman to death. It is, however, prohibited
to kill her quickly. Stones are selected to inflict injury rather
than a quick and merciful death. The executioners are discouraged
from making any lethal hits on the head at all, at least not until
the victim has undergone sufficient pain and suffering. The ideal
death struggle for someone so sinful should last at least an hour,
if not longer.
    Human flesh cannot resist unyielding stone.
Two hours of being peppered by small stones will lacerate human
flesh into mush. With small stones opening small wounds, the
victim’s vision will quickly be blinded by blood. The soft flesh on
a woman’s face will soon begin to shred. The victim’s screams of
anguish as she pleads for mercy, combined with the stoning
cheerleader’s shouts, will drive the stoners into a frenzy,
disregarding all personal knowledge of the victim and reducing her
to an object of sin and hate. By the time death draws near, the
soft tissue of her face will have been replaced by blood and gore.
Yet the victim will often still be