This is the question those who initiated the appeal entitled "Sakineh Must Not be Stoned" a fortnight ago asked themselves.
And since then, it is the question those tens of thousands of men and women who have signed this first appeal every day, every hour, some days at a rate of a signature every second, are asking.
Unfortunately, no one has the answer to this dreadful question.
And nothing says that, in the coming days, perhaps even tomorrow, this terrible sentence will not be carried out and the beautiful face of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani reduced to a pulp, like the faces of those two lovers who were, indeed, stoned to death on August 16th in the province of Kunduz, in Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, I don't believe it.
I believe, I wish to believe, that the campaign initiated in North America by Heather Riesman, Marie-Josée Kravis, Arianna Huffington and others and relayed, in France, by Libération, Elle and my online review, La Règle du jeu, will ultimately prevail.
And this for at least three reasons.
First of all, because, as Charlotte Gainsbourg, one of the first to have answered my invitation to address a «Letter to Sakineh» every day, so eloquently put it, we have the good fortune to live in a country where the last word is that of this absolute master, Public Opinion. Nearly 50,000 men and women (the number of those who, as I write these words, have already signed the petition) feel that stoning is an unfathomably ignominious crime, and we are unanimous (above and beyond the beliefs or non-beliefs of each individual) in answering the stones of obscurantism and crime with the letter of our names. And the leaders who second us, those who govern and obey our consensus, are justified in intervening and following; is it merely by chance that the first country to have committed itself, through the voice of Nicolas Sarkozy, to the cause of the young woman is the same one that initiated the petition?
And then because, as implacable as dictatorships may be, and as unscrupulous, soulless, and lacking in virtue as their leaders may be, they are never completely autistic and, in the trial of strength they are engaged in with the democratic world, a combat that amounts to their way of being and their second nature, they pay attention to all the signs. When a country like France takes such a strong stand, declaring, through the words of its president, that the young woman threatened with stoning is under its responsibility, thus making this a question of humanity, of principle, and of honor, the regime in Tehran cannot avoid taking this position into account, in one way or another. At La Règle du jeu, the network of Iranian web sites and bloggers with whom we communicate seems to indicate the growing momentum, within the Iranian judicial apparatus itself, of a trend of thought that considers the price to pay for this execution, in the open agora of the global village, of a woman whose sole crime is, perhaps, to have fallen in love would be exorbitant and far too risky for the regime.
And then finally because, on the extremely tense stage where the Iranian question is playing out, on the world theater where the friends of democracy confront the partisans of a soon-to-be-nuclear mollarchy, a third actor has arrived, one who plays and will play an increasingly decisive role: this actor is Iranian civil society struggling with its State in defense of the culture and values of the great Persian civilization. And the fact is that with this petition, with this appeal in favor of a woman whose name was, even yesterday, unknown throughout the world but who is now known by her first name, with this act of recognition of a face that has actually become a global icon in the space of a few weeks, the first sign of concrete solidarity has been established, intended for this civil society that, little more than a year ago, suffered the theft of its own vote. Still another reason that Ahmadinejad and his colleagues cannot remain deaf to the appeal addressed to them.
Nothing, I repeat, says that we will not wake up tomorrow morning to the terrible news of the execution of the young woman.
And in this regard, the latest news I have had from Iran is not all encouraging. If the powers that be, faced with the wave of global-wide indignation, have officially suspended the execution of the sentence, it seems as well that 1) Sakineh's case, placed under seal, was reopened late last week (which, in a State of law, might be a good sign but in Tehran seems rather to indicate preparations to append additional charges); 2) her 22-year-old son, Sajjad, no longer has any contact whatsoever with her (which, obviously, is really a bad sign); 3) on Saturday night, August 28th, one of the authorities of the prison of Tabriz came to tell her she should prepare to die and that it was time to express her last wishes (and with that, one's blood runs cold).
But precisely.
All the more reason to continue, again and again, to implore the judges for mercy.
All the more reason to continue the mobilization of consciences in the face of what might well be merely an attempt to intimidate and to spread terror,
If only other countries rapidly join France (Italy? Germany? The United States?), if other voices take up and relay our appeal (Muslim intellectuals of the Arab world? Of Europe ?), if more and more of us every day sign the appeal rejecting fanaticism and asking for mercy, then I believe, yes, that a petition will be able to save a life.