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The Stoning of Soraya M., from the producers of The Passion of the Christ, came to town yesterday for an advanced screening for Catholic leaders, pastors and protestant ministers. The film stars Jim Caviezel and Shohreh Aghdashloo (of the Nativity Story, among other films) in a story about how Shariah Law is abused, in a small rural town in Iran, by a husband and the local Mullah to falsely accuse his wife of adultery, the punishment of which is stoning. The film has many parallels to The Passion of the Christ because it very graphically depicts the drama that leads up to the execution of an innocent, albeit in this case an innocent Muslim woman. It isn't an easy film to watch, but a film that the Catholic community should get behind and go and see.
It reveals the inherent injustice of Shariah Law, especially how women have the presumption of guilt, whereas men have the presumption of innocence, but does not make religion or belief in God the culprit. It doesn't make Islam or men as a category the bad guy. It is a film like this that reminds us how the Judeo-Christian worldview most fully embodied in the Catholics Faith where the status of women is elevated in society.
The film is about how women are really opressed, not the false opression of "western patriarchy" whined about by marxist feminists, but the kind of oppression that makes public executions of women so easy and still present in our world. I hope that feminists who go and see this film and ask themselves why Catholics, like Benedict XVI, who openly criticize feminism don't order the stoning of feminist lesbians.
In a world where Muslims riot over cartoons, there is courage behind the making of this film. Keep an eye out for it when it comes to your town.
PS: The film is produced by MPower Productions. In this month of May, I wonder what kind of power is Mpower??? I wonder.
See the film.
