Thursday 15 November, 2007 at 5:55PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (1)

This is a stunning development. You may recall a story that received a lot of media attention about 18 months ago regarding a 19-year-old woman from Saudi Arabia's Shia minority, gang-raped 14 times after being found talking with an unrelated man in his car. Seven men from the majority Sunni community were found guilty of the rape and sentenced to prison terms ranging from just under a year to five years. What made headlines around the world was that along with the seven men, the victim was also punished - for violating Saudi Arabia's laws on segregation that forbid unrelated men and women from associating with each other. She was sentenced to 90 lashes for being in an unrelated man's car (as if being gang-raped 14 times wasn't enough 'punishment' already).

The latest news is the result of an appeal by the victim. The appeal court in Saudi Arabia concluded that the punishment should not be reduced, but increased to 200 lashes, and a six-month prison sentence added! The Arab News quoted an official as saying the judges had decided to punish the girl further for trying to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media. Seriously.

In a situation like this I would expect there to be media attention, with or without any efforts by the victim - what attracted that attention was not the victim but the seemingly bizarre decision made by the Saudi judicial system in the first place. I realize that I find it shocking because I live in a different culture where woman are not treated as little more than slaves, but this appeal ruling sounds suspiciously like the judges just didn't like having the initial judiciary decision questioned, particularly by a woman. The rapists also had their prison terms doubled, but the sentences are still low considering they could have faced the death penalty.

To add insult to injury, the victim's lawyer was suspended from the case, has had his license to work confiscated, and faces a disciplinary session for appealing the case. Yup, nothing personal at all...

source: BBC world news, article by Frances Harrison.