After surviving rape, Saudi woman attempts to survive her government

[babylonsister]

Saudi woman punished after gang rape to fight ruling
22/11/2007 07h54
Saudi female students in Riyadh.



RIYADH (AFP) - A Saudi woman sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang raped has vowed to challenge the ruling in a case that has received wide publicity, embarrassing the Saudi government.

The case "sums up the major problems that the Saudi judiciary faces," said the young woman's lawyer, Abdurrahman al-Lahem.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, applies a rigorous doctrine of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. It imposes strict segregation of the sexes and a host of restrictions on women, who may not mix with men other than relatives and must cover from head to toe in public.

The 19-year-old's identity has not been revealed but she has become known as "Qatif girl," after the Shiite-populated area of Al-Qatif in the Eastern Province she hails from.

After the rape in October 2006, she was sentenced to 90 lashes for having been in a car with a man who is not a relative.

The Higher Judicial Council granted a retrial but, on November 14, a court toughened her sentence to six months in jail and 200 lashes.

more...

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/071122073203.s3weco8c.html

[Benhurst]

1. Shh! The Royal Saudi family are our dear friends. Why Prince Bandar bin Sultin

is practically a member of the Bush family and was called Bandar Bush in Washington.

[MADem]

2. Woah!!! Now, THIS is an interesting twist to the story!!!!!

In the court's view, the girl, who was 18 at the time of the incident, was guilty because she was in the company of a male stranger who apparently had pictures of her she wanted to take back.

Both were abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of seven men, newspapers said.

The court's "argument was that it was the girl's fault in the first place that (the rape) happened and none of that would have have happened if she had not met up with the non-related male friend," Lahem told Arab News.

The young woman belongs to Saudi Arabia's minority Shiite community, while the rapists are Sunni.

The men were initially sentenced to one to five years in jail, but those terms were also toughened last week to between two and nine years.



When I first saw this case, with no details, I thought it was ghastly, but I wondered if the woman wasn't in fact a contracted prostitute. This amplification and additional detail makes it appear to me that this is a RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION crime, as well as a sexual assault. I'm speculating that the fellow she was with is also shi'a--I could be wrong, but it seems logical.

Thanks for posting this update.

[demoleft]

3. yes, sad story i read in the BBC news...

US dems candidates reacted. Obama asked Mrs Rice to make formal requests to the Saudi government in order to change the sentence.
she's 19, she's been twice abused: by rapists and court.

i found the dems' candidates protests a bit too politically correct in this case. too tactful with the Saudi friends, the oil producers...
but at least they rouse a voice.

though in tune with saudi's independent law, this sentence is a shame.
i hope the west won't look at the events from the window.

no use. we, exporters of democracy, are too strong with the weak, and too weak with the strong.
but this MUST become an international case.

thanx for posting the story.

[LynnTheDem]

4. It's only a crime when governments who don't like bush do it.

It's ok for Saudi Arabia to do whatever they want. Being sovereign and all. Can't interfere with sovereign nations' laws.

Except of course when those sovereign nations have stuff Corporate America wants.