Yoooohoooo, paging Amnesty International, the National Organization of Women, and the State Department…..
An appeal court in Saudi Arabia has doubled the number of lashes and added a jail sentence as punishment for a woman who was gang-raped. The victim was initially punished for violating laws on segregation of the sexes – she was in an unrelated man’s car at the time of the attack.
When she appealed, the judges said she had been attempting to use the media to influence them.
The attackers’ sentences – originally of up to five years – were doubled.
According to the Arab News newspaper, the 19-year-old woman, who is from Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority, was gang-raped 14 times in an attack in the eastern province a year-and-a-half ago.
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.
But 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 initially sentenced to 90 lashes for being in the car of a strange man.
On appeal, the Arab News reported that the punishment was not reduced but increased to 200 lashes and a six-month prison sentence.
The rapists also had their prison terms doubled. But the sentences are still low considering they could have faced the death penalty.
The Arab News quoted an official as saying the judges had decided to punish the girl for trying to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.
The victim’s lawyer was suspended from the case, has had his licence to work confiscated, and faces a disciplinary session.
Gotta love our camel jockey ‘freinds’ from Saudi Arabia.
This kind of shit always flies under the radar of liberals and supporters of the ‘poor innocent victims of America’s war on terrorism’.
I’ve e-mailed N.O.W. more than once about their hell-raising over women’s rights…only if they’re ‘violated’ in western democracies. When it comes to the brutal atrocities carried out by muslim troglodytes in the Middle East, you could hear a pin drop.
Bill,
You are right on the money. The history of Saudi abuse of women, as well as their draconian laws are a matter of record. Our government needs to take their Monarchy to the proverbial woodshed. Hell, we enact selective sanctions on other countries like Iran, for their abhorrent behavior. What really kills me, is the conspicuous silence on the part of all the leftwingnuts who scream about perceived American ‘injustices’, but have nothing to say about the inherent cruelty in the muslim culture.
Our legislators, Senators, and members of Congress need to address this. I also pointed out in a previous post: http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/laura-bush-in-a-bmo-sammich/
that Laura Bush’s trip to the UAE on a ‘breast cancer awareness’ tour, overlooked the blatant oppression of women in their culture. The picture of the First Lady in between two females in head-to-toe Burquas says it all.
That’s just par for the course for the Saudis. Consider this excerpt from a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom:
“In one case, the Commission was told of a foreign domestic worker who had become pregnant after being raped by her employer. She was subsequently imprisoned because it is illegal for female foreign workers to become pregnant in Saudi Arabia if they are not married.”
http://www.uscirf.gov/countries/region/middleast/saudi/saudiReport.pdf
And if the ruling of these judges amazes you, guess who they look to for controlling legal precedent:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7645118/
Saudi society is saturated with this crap. It’s truly endemic:
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com