Saudi woman gets 90 lashes for being raped

Happy International Women's Day everyone. To mark this wonderful occasion, I thought I would bring to your attention the story of one woman in Saudi Arabia. The woman was kidnapped at knifepoint and gang raped. She was then beaten by her brother and sentenced to 90 lashes. Her crime? Meeting a man who was not a relative. Tom Gross is among the commentators who are angry about this case. Others are also angry at the minimal coverage it has received. The theme for this year's International Women's Day, backed by the United Nations, is 'Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women and Girls.' To complete your celebrations, do find time to read this chat with a doctor who carries out female circumcisions in Saudi. But make sure your stomach is properly emptied first. Still, some women are finding love in Saudi. Read Memri's pick up from a Saudi daily of the steps being taken by police to stamp out lesbianism.

This is the story that appeared on AFP from Riyadh:

'A Saudi woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped and then beaten by her brother has been sentenced to 90 lashes -- for a meeting a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported on Monday. In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, the 19-year-old said she was blackmailed a year ago into meeting a man who threatened to tell her family they were having a relationship outside wedlock, which is illegal in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom. After driving off together from a shopping mall near her home, the woman and the man were stopped and abducted by a gang of men wielding kitchen knives who took them to a farm where she was raped 14 times by her captors. Five men were arrested for the rape and given jail terms ranging from 10 months to five years by a panel of judges in the eastern city of Qatif, near the woman’s hometown.

'But the judges also decided to sentence the woman, identified by the newspaper only as “G,” and the man to lashes for being alone together in the car. Unrelated men and women are forbidden from interacting in public in Saudi Arabia, which strictly enforces Islamic Sharia law. “G” said one of the judges told her she was lucky not to have been given jail time. “I was shocked at the verdict. I couldn’t believe my ears,” said the woman, who has appealed against her sentence. The woman also told the paper she tried to commit suicide because of her ordeal and was beaten by her younger brother because the rape had brought shame on their family. Fuziyah al-Ouni, described as an activist by the paper, said she was outraged by the case. “By sentencing her to 90 lashes they are sending a message that she is guilty. No rape victim is guilty,” she said. There are severe legal restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia, including a strict dress code required outside the home and a ban on driving.'

As the UN says on its Women's Day website, impunity for violence against women remains the norm, not the exception, in many parts of the world. I look forward to some decisive action against Saudi Arabia by the United Nations on behalf of the unfortunate "G", above. It is wonderful to know that her suffering, and that of thousands of others, is being properly addressed. For more stories on Islam in the modern world, see the Times Online Faith Page.

Comments

[RIDWAAN]

HOW, THEN, DO THE OTHERS (NON-MUSLIMS) CONTINUE TO MAKE PROGRESS AND THE MUSLIMS NOT?

Naturally, a very important question arises here. In the last several centuries, the West and some other non-Muslim countries have been making spellbinding advances in education, science and technology and in their governmental systems without the Qur'an! The short answer is that they have been making great use of their human faculties of reasoning and intellectual inquiry. Another very significant factor has also played its role in this regard. The Qur'an has been, perceptibly and imperceptibly, making its Universal Impact on human civilization and history during the last fourteen centuries. The celebrated thinker and historian, Robert Briffault has very convincingly demonstrated this truth in his remarkable book, "The Making of Humanity." Muslims, on the other hand, after disabling the Divine Revelation, have also paralyzed their intellect, falling for utterly irrational and senseless themes and traditions fabricated and recorded on hearsay centuries after the blessed times of the exalted Prophet and his noble companions. However, the Golden Rule holds good for all nations that the Qur'an, the last REVELATION OF GOD, ECONOMIZES HUMAN EFFORT. It can give them EMINENCE they have never imagined before: scientific and moral achievements side by side - and in a short span of time - without going through a prolonged ordeal of learning through trial and error. And thus, they can adopt a Progressive System of Life that embraces that which is good and promotes the well-being of humanity, and avoids that which is evil and harmful to humanity. Furthermore, this Divinely-inspired System of life is fully sustainable and durable.

[Tom Jackson]

"The West is in denial about radical Islam."

So true; so true. We fall over backwards to accommodate the changes that the Islamic minority introduce into our way of life in the UK because of the tolerant, sympathetic and easy-going people we are.

But there is a threat; there is a deterioration and disintegration of those fundamental aspects of our culture which have developed over generations through our Christian heritage and which support everything that we give value to in the way we live our lives in this country.

Our increasingly secular society gives rise to the belief that those aspects of our way-of-life that we value so much can be supported and maintained without the foundation and structures that many of us still value. There is an acceptance that the changing nature of our population, the increase in immigrant communities and the emergence of minority forces within central and local government with influence far greater than warranted by the size of those minorities, will have no effect on the security, stability and prosperity of our country.

It is only when we look abroad, when we examine the persecution in countries dominated by Islamic regimes, when we witness the barbaric atrocities committed in the name of Islam, that we gain any sense of the threat we face.

But we choose to ignore what is happening in places such as Saudi Arabia. We close our eyes and our ears to such events as if political correctness has immunised us against such reality and the fear of being labelled a racist or a bigot has sealed our mouths tightly closed.

I sometimes walk my dog with a gentle, 80 year old lady who has those fears but who cannot understand the indifference and head-in-the-sand attitude of many people here in the UK today. She recognises the threat of people such as the President of Iran and those Islamic militant youngsters growing up in our cities today. She doesn't recognise the country that she has lived in all her life and she is only too pleased that she will not live much longer in a country which has lost it's backbone and is losing it's spirit.

[An Observer]

Source:
www.opinionjournal.com
(online edition of Wall Street Journal)
'FREE RADICAL' by Joseph Rago about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, March 10, 2007

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali is untrammeled and unrepentant: "I am supposed to apologize for saying the prophet is a pervert and a tyrant," she declares. "But that is apologizing for the truth."

..."The culture that I came to and I live in now is not perfect, Miss Hirsi Ali says. "But this culture, the West, the product of the Enlightenment, is the best humanity has ever achieved."

"Islam, even Islam in its nonviolent form, is dangerous." "...and I define Islam as I was taught to define it: submission to the will of Allah. His will is written in the Quran, and in the hadith and Sunna. What we are all taught is that when you want to make a distinction between right and wrong, you follow the prophet. Muhammad is the model guide for every Muslim through time, throughout history." This supposition justified, in her view, a withering critique of Islam's most holy human messenger: "You start by scrutinizing the morality of the prophet and then ask: 'Are you prepared to follow the morality of the prophet in a society such as this one?' She draws a connection beteen Mohammed's taking of child brides and modern sexual oppressions --- what she calls "this imprisonment of women." She decries the murder of adulteresses and rape victims, the wearing of the veil, arranged marriages, domestic violence, genital mutilation and other contraventions of 'the most basic freedoms'. These sufferings, she maintains, are traceable to theological imperatives."

These are excerpts from the article.

[Maduka]

This is face of radical Islam we see in Nigeria. It is the kind of radical Islam that led to the beheading of poor Innocent Akaluka for "defacing the Quran". It led to the amputation of Bello Jangedi for stealing a cow. It led to Amina Lawal .....

The West is in denial about radical Islam. There seems to be no Western Christian or Political leader that can deal effectively and frankly with the menace of radical Islam. Western Christian leaders are bound by political correctness, while Western Political leaders are bound by dependence on Oil (does anyone remember the Eurofighter deal with Saudi Arabia).

If radical Islam is not contained, the implications could be deadly. In a vast swath of Sub-Saharan Africa from Ivory Coast to Tanzania, Christians have learned from experience to stand up to radical Islam. In Indonesia, the sizable Christian minority is ready to respond to trouble, while in India, Hindu revivalists are ready to shed blood if attacked by radical Islamists.

The West must understand that Saudi Arabia is the seat of a dangerous Wahabist type of Islam, an Islam causing so much damage in my part of the World. The real religious crisis is not the relatively minor issue of isolated acts of terrorism in Western nations, but the potential of religiously motivated wars in nations like India, Nigeria, Sudan and Indonesia.

Unfortunately, the growing perception of the World Wide Christian Community is that that West is both unwilling and unable to protect the rights of Christians and even Muslim that live under Shari'a law. The current events in Afghanistan and Iraq support that view.

[An Observer]

THE TRUTH ABOUT MUHAMMAD by Robert Spencer and SWORD OF THE PROPHET by Serge Trifkovic. Websites:
www.jihadwatch.org
www.dhimmiwatch.or
www.islamundressed.com
www.littlegreenfootballs.com

They all covered this tragic story ages ago with references to all the Koran's injunctions re women which explain this horrendous situation which is a typical one throughout Islamic countries. Mr Jackson expresses surprise at the paucity of remarks on this thread. This is due in no small part to the failure of mainstream media to enlighten the public. No discussion in print ever appears in the British press regarding the doctrines of Islam or the words and conduct of its self-declared 'prophet' Muhammad or of Islam's entire 1400 yr history of degradation, despoilation and destruction throughout the world. Instead, 'the usual suspects' of secularists, rabid anti-Christians and sexual perverts put in their useless comments, seemingly oblivious, even to themselves, as to the true threat of Islam, probably because they view Islam as a useful battering tool against the Judaeo-Christian and capitalist world which is a bastion against their inanities. "It is not true, as is sometimes said, that man cannot organise the world without God. What is true is that without God, he can only organise it against man." I throw down the gauntlet to you, Miss Gledhill and to THE TIMES: a book review of Spencer's book, an honest statement of Muhammad's conduct and life and words and a real revelation about the Koran, preferably not by a Muslim or apologist for same like Armstrong or Esposito. It is not a question of 'exposing the dark side of Islam' but simply of telling the truth. And shaming the Devil.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster FRSA]

I understand that International Women's Day coincided with the conclusion of a poll or survey in which Israel turns out (surprise to surprise)to be the worst place on earth, or words to that effect.

Well, the day before Women's Day, gifted children from High Schools in Israel, the USA, Iraq and Iran were holding a video conference on the Middle East and I was one of the educators involved at the Israeli end from the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.

The whole thing was the brain-child of someone in Ohio and although the Israeli kids didn't get to hear what happened with the Iraqis and Iranian kids, it was all great fun, and actually very moving.

The day after, here in Israel, women got the day off work and I was taken out to a slap-up lunch by the female co-ordinator of the Israeli side of the conference call to thank me for all my help and advice.

Immediately after, she started turning out her cupboards for Pesach and I got home (in the extreme heat) and did likewise today.

[Tom Jackson]

At times - not very often, I admit - words fail me.

How can any so-called civilised society condone an extreme and violent punishment such as was administered to this rape victim?

Even in a community where "meeting a man not related to you " is considered a crime at all, then to subject this woman to such a barbarous beating is inhuman.

It is further emphasis, if needed, that the gulf between ourselves in Western society and those nations that follow such codes of justice is so wide that reconciliation of our ways-of-life is practically impossible. We are far from perfect in our treatment of one another in the UK but we would surrender any claim to civilised behavior if such punishment were part of our justice system.

[simon]

Islam claims it was Ishmael rather than Isaac that Jacob that God asked Abraham (Ibrahim) to take up the mountain. So perhaps this is relevant ?

Genesis 16

7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." 10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:
"You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers."

Maybe this Wahabi form of Islam, with its cruel punishments for women and anyone professing any different beliefs, is the real and authentic form of Islam. Maybe the gentle and mystic Sufi form of Islam is not the 'wild donkey' it should be ?

[Londiniensis]

This is atrocious on many levels, but your headline is misleading. "G" was not sentenced for being raped, she was sentenced for meeting the unnamed man alone in his car. The horrific and utterly inexcusable gang-rape happened afterwards (and would not have happened if she had not been with the man in the car). I would be interested in how the unnamed man got off the blackmail allegation (and indeed whether he was a suspect in the gang-rape) - it appears from the story that "G" only met him under duress, which should have been a mitigating factor.

Under our own codes of law, committing a crime and immediately thereafter being the victim of another crime does not absolve one of the initial crime - at least I do not think so. One could of course argue that meeting a man not related to you should not be a crime, and I think we should, but that is not how this story is being angled.

The rape was horrible and the (unrelated) punishment was horrible, but by conflating the two the reporting of this sad story is doing no one any favours.

[David Booker]

Mad, crazy, sick, outrageous, sad, all words that come to mind. And then I looked at how few comments this story provoked compared with others and wonder why? Maybe we should be ashamed of our indifference.