Ari Bussel: Stand and Speak Out

A movie was made a couple of years ago entitled, “The Stoning of Soraya M”. The film is based on the true story of an Iranian Shi’ite Muslim wife and mother accused of infidelity by her husband in order to divorce her to marry a younger model – a nubile 14 year old girl.

Here is an Ed Morrissey pre-release review from Hot Air in 2008:

The Stoning of Soraya M has not yet hit theaters, but believe me, this is one film that will not appear quietly and disappear without notice. I attended a pre-release screening last night, and it reminded me of all the reasons I love film as an art form and as a medium of communication. When it finally makes it to the theaters, people should line up to see this powerful, dramatic, and disturbing representation of a true story.

The film comes from a book of the same name, written by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, about the stoning execution of a young wife and mother for the crime of infidelity. Sahebjam discovers this story by accident and had to wait until he gets out of Iran to tell it. The regime in Tehran officially denies that any such executions take place, but at least one videotape of a stoning has been smuggled out of Iran, and many more people have testified to their occurrence.

Soraya’s husband Ali has tired of Soraya after having four children with her, and wants to marry the 14-year-old daughter of one of his prisoners. He can’t afford two wives, so he demands a divorce from Soraya, who refuses for economic reasons. Instead, Ali conspires with the local mullah — a fraud who has to keep Ali from exposing him — to frame Soraya for infidelity. The “evidence” is laughably transparent, but as Soraya notes in the film, “voices of women do not matter here”.

Her aunt Zahra, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, provides the central voice for the film. It’s mostly told in flashback as she explains what happened to the journalist who only came to town because his car broke down. Aghdashloo provides the voice of conscience and reason in a town gone mad, a village where Soraya’s own father calls her an unprintable name and where her sons join in the stoning. Even with most of the film in subtitles, it is easy to follow and heartbreaking and enraging to watch.

The performances are universally excellent. Aghdashloo, an Iranian ex-patriate herself, brings Zahra and her defiance and despair to life. Mozhan Marno portrays Soraya beautifully, especially in the execution scene. Jim Caveziel plays the journalist, and while he doesn’t get much screen time, he does well with what he has. Navid Negahban provides a malevolent presence as Ali, while David Diaan’s Ebrahim winds up being perhaps the worst of the villains — a good man who refuses to stop an injustice he knows to be happening.

After the film, Aghdashloo and producer Stephen McEveety spoke for a while about their experiences making the film. Ms. Aghdashloo was tremendously open and honest about her own experiences, speaking of her flight from Iran and her efforts to get her family out, and her thoughts on the current regime and their barbaric treatment of women. I introduced myself to McEveety, …

Outrageous stuff from the Religion of Peace, don’t you agree?

You need to know this background to understand the outrage of Ari Bussel after attending a recent showing of this film to a predominantly Muslim audience. The movie apparently greeted the mostly American Muslim audience but not in the way Bussel thought it would go.

Read the self-indulgent blindness of Muslims who refuse to believe a Muslim woman can be so easily defamed and stoned to death for a fabricated adultery.

JRH 4/21/10