Thursday, February 12, 2009

Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for committing adultery


By Liz Hazelton

Last updated at 11:01 AM on 11th February 2009


A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.

The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.

He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.

A judge in the Saudi city of Jeddah, pictured, ruled that the woman was guilty of adultery and should be jailed for a year

She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.

According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah.

He ruled she had committed adultery - despite not even being married - and handed down a year's prison sentence, which she will serve in a prison just outside the city.

She is still pregnant and will be flogged once she has had the child.

The Saudi Arabian legal system practices a strict form of medieval law. Women have very few rights and are not even allowed to drive.

They are also banned from going out in public in the company of men other than male relatives.




(and these are our "friends"?)
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6 comments:

Tim Murray said...

Right, Sherry. These people are our friends?!

I've checked into this and it's horrible, but maybe for a slightly different reason than the way most of the news accounts are reporting it. Under their enlightened laws (that was sarcasm), she can't consort with males as she supposedly did. She became pregnant, and she alleged she was gang raped. The judge ruled that she committed adultery -- he did not find she was raped. Mind you, she might have been raped for all we know -- it is almost impossible to prove rape under their "judicial" system. But it would also be almost understandable if she became pregnant and then claimed she was raped simply to soften the terrible punishment that would befall her for having relations with a man. Either way, the system is absurd, and backward, beyond belief.

But lest we think that the Saudis just hate women, last week they also sentenced a man to 50 lashes -- for smoking in a prohibitted place.

With friends like this . . . . Come to think of it, how many of the men on the 9/11 suicide missions were Saudis? Most of them, I believe.

We need to distance ourselves from these barbarians, one way or another.

11:01 AM
Sherry Pasquarello said...

i believe in the freedom to believe as one chooses BUT these types of laws along with female genital mutilation, honor killings and the like are just beyond any enlightened society.

the fact that ex-president bush and his father, ex-president bush consider the saudis friends and the saudi royals as blood brothers

and the fact that when no one else but our government was allowed to fly on 9/11 and a few days after bush got the saudi royals and their friends on a plane and out of this country just bothers me.

as to saudi justice. they beat women in the streets if their sandals make any noise slapping against their feet! the noise supposedly is too erotic for men to hear without getting hot and bothered(that doesn't say much for the self control of men in their estimation)

heck, the village councils have been known to sentence women to BE raped. it's formally "frowned upon" but it still goes on with a wink and a nudge.

so? friends?

don't think so.

11:34 AM
Tim Murray said...

AND, the practice of polygamy is supposedly widespread. We know what that means for women but it also leaves most young men unable to establish a normal life, unable to marry and very, very angry (because there are far too many males under that system). The young men channel their anger into fanaticism and hatred of the West.

By the way, I loved Michael Moore's film about 9/11 -- but don't forget it isn't just the Bushes. The Clinton Library received its largest overseas gift from the Saudis -- $10 million. And now, his spouse is . . . oh no! I think we're right back where we've been for years.

11:53 AM
Sherry Pasquarello said...

yeah, money talks, sadly. and the saudis have a massive amout that speaks very loud.

i realize that it wouldn't bode well for all that oil to fall into the hands of the fundamentalists but still, there must be some way to advance the cause of human rights and dignity without inflaming religious tensions.

and you are right about the young men, but keeping things the way they are is benificial to any dictator's regime wether it is a theocracy or not.

all i can say is that as a nation our policy should have dignity and human rights up a little closer to the top of the list when dealing with this country and others diplomatically.

12:39 PM
Tim Murray said...

One thing that history has taught us is that we can't impose democracy on a country. Democracy can only erupt when there is a thriving middle class, freedom of contract, the right to own private property and not an excessive entanglement between religion and state.

We can, however, insist that countries adopt basic levels of human rights, which means due process of law, punishments that fit the crime and equal protection under law. By any objective measure, beating people for smoking or for noisy sandals does not meet those criteria.

Sadly we have now had generations of "enlightened" college profs. teaching young people that every culture in the world is deserving of equal respect and that to suggest ours is superior is somehow wrong. Sorry, but despite all its flaws, the Anglo-judicial system IS the most advanced, most enlightened in the history of the world. All peoples of the earth are deserving of respect and dignity, but not all cultures are equally civilized.

Anyway, we've been hearing since the Ford administration about the necessity for energy independence, but still I see the road populated by giant SUVs with one driver, getting 15 mpg. I suggest it is a national defense issue to mandate at least 40 mpg, and to start making real investments in wind, biofuels and -- yes -- the dreaded nuclear power. But somehow I don't think that's ever going to happen, so long as the Saudis take care of their friends in high places.

1:24 PM
Sherry Pasquarello said...

just lost a whole big rant on suvs and parking at malls and grocery stores, as if we had to clear a path thru jungle terrain to pick up dry cleaning! anyway, yep. we need to do something, on a big scale and individually.

me? i'm an individually type of person. i do what i can in my little sphere of influence. beats throwing up my hands and doing noting because the problems seem insurmountable.

2:17 PM

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