If you want to be notified the next time we publish something, sign up for FREE email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I read this story a week ago in the Arabic media, but when I saw today a different version of it in the English mainstream media, I found myself tempted to mention it for different reasons, which you will know about after you read the story:
A Saudi court has sentenced a gang rape victim to 90 lashes of the whip because she was alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married.
The sentence was passed at the end of a trial in which the Al Qateef high criminal court convicted four Saudis convicted of the rape, sentencing them to prison terms and a total of 2,230 lashes.
The four, all married, were sentenced respectively to five years and 1,000 lashes, four years and 800 lashes, four years and 350 lashes, and one year and 80 lashes.
A fifth, married, man who was stated to have filmed the rape on his mobile phone still faces investigation.
Two others alleged to have taken part in the rape evaded capture.
Saudi courts take marital status into account in sexual crimes. A male friend of the rape victim was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone with her in the car.
The court heard that the victim and her friend were followed by the assailants to their car, kidnapped and taken to a remote farm, where the raping occurred.
The victim was quoted by Okaz newspaper as saying she had expected harsher penalties for the assailants, especially as they had pleaded not guilty.
Her husband and family said that they would appeal to the court Saturday for harsher penalties for a crime that has shocked public opinion in Saudi Arabia and been the subject of months of debate. [Gulf Times. Arabic version can be found here]!
Now, this ironic news has many funny things:
1. The victim is guilty of being alone with unknown man in his car, but the story didn't explain that this man was a rescuer who heard the calls of the lady and ran to help her. So she get lashes because he is not her relative (I guess he should be first degree).
2. The rescuer got lashes too because he was alone with the lady. But, couldn't it be that he was trying to rescue her from the gang and toke her in his car away from the danger? Lesson learned: If you are in Saudi Arabia and you see a girl getting raped in front of you, do nothing, unless you can go search for someone from her family (first degree relative) and ask him to come to give you cover before you attempt to try to rescue the victim.
3. I guess the Islamic laws do not say lashes in these crimes, but stoning to death, especially if the rapist is married, and they are. So, what makes them an exception? What is it? they don't have three witnesses to convict someone for such a crime, and since there is NO witnesses, but only seven rapist, one lady, and one rescuer, the math's does don't sum up to punish them with stoning? How funny this is.
4. Another funny thing is this: "The four, all married, were sentenced respectively to five years and 1,000 lashes, four years and 800 lashes, four years and 350 lashes, and one year and 80 lashes." Must be the first was fucking, the second was licking, the third was kissing and the fourth, well, maybe he came late and just started to take off his cloths. I mean, what the hell? But what do you know… this is justice! Oh, forgot the fifth guy… "A fifth, married, man who was stated to have filmed the rape on his mobile phone still faces investigation." Ok, I understand… the court did not see the clip enough times yet. Maybe after they see it for the 100000000001 time, they will remember that there was a guy who toke this clip… "but what do you know… it's a nice clip, maybe we just let him go if he leaves his mobile for us?"
5. Imagine that this same case take place in some other Arab country (I won't say Western), do you think the victim and the man who was trying to help her will be convicted and lashed? Of course not. This is not in the books of laws except in our saviors of Arabia. And what about the assailants? Was that enough to do with them?
6. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning that only in the English version of the story, the rescuers is said to be the victim's friend and she was traveling in the car with him, whereas, the Arabic version of the story does not say that. In fact the Arabic version here said that she was walking in street when she was kidnapped and the guy came to rescue her, so clearly two completely different stories.
Anyway, where in the world would the victim and the rescuer get convicted for "sexual crime" (of being alone in the car) but in …?
Welcome to … Arabia!
{ 30 } Comments
I can't believe the above commenter. Who cares whether or not the girl was with a relative. The POINT is she was RAPED – that is a FACT which ALL the papers AGREE on. This country is just getting sicker by the second.
Raed,
I don't really care for the details as much as I care for abusing human rights in this story. Regardless if the guy is her boyfriend or not, it is not logic to punish the victims of the crime.
In other words, these laws does not make any sense, and this story is just flooding the world mainstream media, so you can imagine what the world are thinking and talking of Muslims and Islam now.
Honestly, I feel ashamed to be labeled with the same label of such a stupid laws, followers and judge, just because few thousands or millions of Muslims think that this is right, doesn't make it right, whereas the majority of Muslims knows for a fact that this has nothing to do with Islam.
Dear Jo,
I know that point is she was raped, but that not my argument I'm talking about the papers tell us the deferent story's.
and the verdict on the published media is not the complete verdict there is still two verdicts left. the 1st is the rapped girl vs the rappers and the 2nd rapped ex-boyfriend vs the rappers.
so the verdict is not final and we shouldn't be lied to by the papers to make it sound it's the final judgment.
lol, this is worest than what happend to Saddam late yesterday. Arab court are a mock, my country Tunisia doesn't have a court or even a DNA team. Even the victim doesn't get justice they get 90 lashe.
Being a father of two daughters (in the west) I find this story appaling.
If one of my daughters was being raped I would gladly embrace anyone who would help them! (related or not)!
I do not blame Islam, but I would blame the leaders of Islam just as I would blame the leaders of the christian churches in North America for their hatred of anyone not affiliated to their religion.
I have only one thing to say. Where are all you educated Saudis who said you were going to change things for the better THIRTY years ago? Haram.
Hey Haitham
Here is a personal story I had in SA. i worked for a year in Khobar. One day a group of male and female doctors and nurses from our hospital were invited by the HASH group (a social lub that focuses on desert activities) so we went with them to the desert. As we came back a Muslim South African nurse missed her all female car, so we had her in our car. We were stopped at a check point on the road and questioned why a female in in our car with no relatives. This is of course against the law there. we tried explain to them but were arrested. the group included three doctors including me and the nurse. The only thing that saved us from the lashes was the interference of the hospital director whom we awakened after midnight. We were treated like criminals although the Hash people and the context of the situation were clear.
That was the first in a series of similar incidents.
I was very scared and puzzled. I left work few weeks later :)
he was a rescuer,but he was not punished for rescuing her but for breaking the law of being with a non related woman. mind you they were chased by the the rapist while they were inside the car already before the rape took place and after this icident the lady was rescued by her friend. lets be clear here that the man did not come running after he heard the scream he was already with her, and thats a crime for which he got 80 lashes .
this is what i understood but if he he was not with her alone and only came later when he heard her scream to save her then he should not have been punished because this is not islamic law(aisha the wife of our prophet was brought home by a man when she got lost in the desert and none of them were punished for being alone because there was a valid reason for them to be alone) thanks (azhar india calcutta)
Ok .. we all agree that she was a victim .. but at the same time it is against the law to have a male with a female that is not her father, brother, uncle, fiance, husband, or driver together in public or privatly. Thats why she is punished. She would have been punished weather she was raped or not for being alone in a private or public place with a guy thats not any of the males above.
Physical punishment is barbarian whatever the crime may be. That crazy law that prevents a woman from being with a man anywhere is segregational and unhuman.I won't be surprised to hear they separate women from men everywhere. i.e in the street, in offices and public transportation. One does not need to be Arab, Moslem, Jewish, or christian to realise this is pure ignorance and stupidity and obscurantism.
You saved me the time to reply this one, Dreamer :)
ok dreamer. would you say the same thing if that woman was your wife etc.
a man and a woman can be alone and there is no dispute over it, but here the problem is that they were not married. if without being married you can do everything then whats the use of getting married? a person whose parents were not married is called a bast–d , a term even a great liberal like you would not want to be associated with,say thanks to GOD that your parents did not do the same thing which you are advocating. do not you see
how some americans and british people behave, do not they behave in a bast–dly manner? this is because of their origin, many of their parents got married after they were born as bast–ds. and you see a bast–d will always remain a bast–d and would always want others to be same like him or her…. what you like now? free mixing of sexes without marriage or mixing after marriage?
azhar india kolkata,
Lets not go round and round in ideologies that are good for nothing. For your information, divorce percentage in Saudi Arabia crossed 60% last year. Do you want to tell me that this is the healthy society that you want to have?
Let's admit it, Islam does not allow relations out of marriage, however, not every relation. What you are describing has nothing to do with Islam. Or in other words, it's the Islam version of some Mullahs who are nothing but ignorant Bedouins. They are the same Mullahs who welcomed Iraq invasion by the occupation forces, and they are the same Mullahs who approved their own Muta'a (pleasure) marriage, called Mesyaf and Mesyar.
What you are describing in your comment has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is much more open and civilized that you think, but following Bedouins rules is something else. For example, Burqa's, etc…
Last but not least, other (maybe all other but Saudi Arabia) Muslim/Arab countries which has no problems with sexes mixing do not have any of the problems (such as divorce rate) you mention. The problems are only evident in ignorant, backward systems such as Afghanistan (Taliban time) and the one you know!
Were that woman anybody’s wife or not would not make any difference to me as I ‘m definitely against torture inflicted to a human being whether a man or a woman no matter what the crime is. And a crime as far as justice is concerned is proved not presumed, for a man and a woman in a car does not prove any crime it’s you and those who apply that law who see it as such. Adultery which leads to illegitimate children needs to be proved before being punished and physical punishment is still barbarian in my opinion./.
ok now its getting clear who is going round and round.thanks for the information on saudi divorce rate. i am really surprised by this news and i will look for the truth in future, but by the way you did not inform me about the percentage of divorce rate in us etc. about the single moms, about the rape of school girls, about the unmarried teen mothers, abortion rates ,pornography,gay sex,phedophilia etc. are they more in numbers in us or saudi arabia? if some mullahs are allowing muta or misyar(temporary marriages or live in relationship) does it makes the law of islam invalid?
if divorce rate is high in saudi arabia then i am dammed sure that it must be higher in europe, is this the society you want?now lets talk about the veil or burqa- what problem do you have with that? female members of my family wear the hijab in india calcutta and for your information this place is dominated by hindus and we muslims are minority and there are no saudi or wahabi mullahs standing with a stick to force us to do things which are done by bedouins as you say but we are forced by the one and only great ALLAH subhanawataala in his quran and the hadith of our prophet ( s.a.w)and we willingly obey. the european civilization you are advocating is infact a bedouin or a jungle civilization where people use to wear nothing but gradually they started covering themselves as they became more modern(not western)until the final revealation of GOD came in the form of quran with the order to cover up fully that man became real modern. if wearing lesser cloth makes a person modern then i would consider the dogs on street more modern because they wear no cloth at all.my brother by saying bedouin if you mean to say wearing hijab which is the command of ALLAH in quran then i am happy to inform you that you can find many bedouins in the city of calcutta india and everywhere around the world ,why single out saudi arabia. and to dreamer i would say that do you know that having cannabis or ganja in my country is legal and infact it is considered a holy practice by many hindus and some heretic sufi muslims but the same cannabis is illegal in many other countries ,would you advise these people to carry on their activities in the same manner everywhere they go just because they think it is not a crime. if they argue with their ideas in singapore, will the court listen to their plea and free them without giving lashes? the answer is no. my freind we have to obey the law of the land or face punishment. being with a non related opposite sex is a crime in saudi arabia and it cannot be amended just because you think it should not be so, just like usa and israel having nuclear arms themselves but at the same time having a law in un that none should build a new atom bomb, it does not make sense to me and i think this is wrong and discrimanotry but what can we do?this is the law . the law of not mixing with a non related opposite sex is not a discrimanotry law i think its ok according to quran and hadeeth. when you shut off your eyes when you see an absurd european law why cannot you do the same with the a reasonable islamic law?
azhar india kolkata,
No, no. I'm comparing apple to apple. I don't know about US and I don't need to here because it is not the subject, so lets not jump. What I'm saying, look at other Muslim and Arab countries. None is so extreme, yet, none have the problems (including divorce rate) that Saudi has.
Again, this is inherited from the Mullah which were the teachers of your local Mullahs. I'm not going to argue the Hijab and Burqa here because I did before and it was very healthy discussion. if you are interested, you can check it here. But just to tell you a little secret, Burqa has nothing to do with Islam. If your Mullahs told you that it is, sorry to tell you that this is stupid. (not to forget the cap that men has to wear when they are praying!!! FYI, I lived in India for 4 years and know a lot about Islam and Muslims in India. Ignorance is dominant, and we used to laugh our ass when we used to see wrong practices and wonder where they got that from. Later we learned a lot about the schools that Indian Mullahs went to learn about Islam etc…)
My friend, dogs are animals, humans are humans. The difference is simple, animals wear what they are forced to wear. It can be Burqa too. Humans have the CHOICE to SELECT what they wear (or not wear at all). I don't care if they are civilized or Bedouins as far as they respect basic human right to have the CHOICE to SELECT. Remember rule number one in Islam is to CHOOSE to be a Muslim or not. No one can force you to be one. If I choose to be a Muslims, neither you nor anyone has the right to tell me what I should and what I should not. After all it is between me and my God.
Obey, obey my friend and let other live. No one is asking you not to obey, but you don't have any damn right to force others to obey to things you invented. Jesus said," He without sin, cast the first stone!" If you think you are without a sin, cast the first stone!
Because it is not Islamic law. I'm sick of people like you who hang all their shit on Islam. Women was with and around and in EVERY part of life and war in Islam history. Women once ruled Muslims, and in case you didn't know, she did not wear Burqa while she was seated on the King chair. Your ignorance hurts Islam more than you think you are protecting it. It's is people like you who put Islam in such a low level among other nations and ethnicities. Go and read the history of Islam. Read more about Shafie, Hanifi, Maliki, Zahiri etc … schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Don't limit yourself to what your Mullahs taught you because that is not all what Islam is. In fact, I'm afraid that you know nothing about Islam and your job is to stir the already disturbed image of Islam (by people like you). I think you are not a Muslim in first place, but whatever, go and read some good for your life (and ending).
There you go, Haitham. Get it done. :-)
so now you talk about freedom, don't i have freedom to choose what i wear?
so when our women put hijab they are considered to backwards and oppressed. do you love my mother and sister more than me? why the hell would i oppress them? when christian nuns do the same do you comment in the same way ?are they forced or oppressed? if no then who gave you the right to judge about us? it is a kind of insult to our understanding of islam when you say there is no hijab in islam. do you think you are so intelligent and we are fools? i think otherwise, because at one hand you pretend to believe in quran and at other you deny the clear guidance and at the same time you mock the believers, do you know that i consider the kaafirs better than your clan of hypocrites who have always tried to deceive us in the garb of islam. but your tactics has never worked and inshaALLAH it would never work till the day of judgement, to hell with you and your brother in ideology kamal ataturk and his types. you talk about india and the practice of muslims over here, i never said that they are good muslims infact we a very small numbers of jamaat ahlulhadeeth(salafis) for example the likes of dr.zakir naik(i doubt you know him rather you must be knowing your brother sharukh khan=salman khan)are always trying to improve the aqeedah of people. actually i was talking about the forcefull implementation of hijab and i said my mother and sister put hijab and there is no religious police over here. the shit is in your head,when you try to tell that women were always there with men in wars etc. before advising me to study history please learn to read and understand what is being talked about? here the topic is whether non related people of alternate sexes can be together alone. what were they doing there in a car? offering salah in a mosque or fighting a holy war? you sons of abdullah bin ubai will remain the same for ever unless ALLAH shows mercy on you. and who was abdullah bin ubai please do not ask me an indian who in your eyes can never understand the history of islam as if islam was revealed for you people only who always try to behave like the jews the so called chosen people of GOD. you lovers of belly dancing,who are always trying to demolish the empire of islam by saying see there is no hijab ,no jihad(physical holy war…qitaal) etc. in islam ! only the extemist wahabi say this and we are the true muslims who love to be poodles of bush and blair(hosne mubarak/king abdullah/arafat/karzai/saudi king/qatari king/omani king/uae king/gaddafi/musharraf). instead of giving me lectures ,go and read the hadeeth where it is mentioned that before the muslims destroy the jews and christians, they the muslims will first finish the munafiqeens(hypocrites) . and by anychance you feel that you naked belly dancers wuold go to jihad with the jews etc. mentioned in the sahih hadeeths and we the wahabis might be the munafiqeens whom you would finish first ,then please let me laugh for a minute because you hate jihad and jihadis and love and advocate the kaafirs… how can you be the one who is mentioned in the hadeeth of fighting with the kuffars ? by the way can you please tell what will be the female soldiers wearing while you do jihad with the kuffar, i will tell about our looks ,it will be easy for you to recognise your enemy. we will be wearing cloths whose ankles will not be hidden and our people's face will have long beard and if situation arises our women will be in hijabs to help the men. your females might be in bikinis and your faces clean like bush . lets see who has understood quran n hadeeth in a right way, bellydancers or hijabis.
See, I doubt you are a Muslim. You don't even know the difference between Hijab and a Burqa.
Go and hide man, people like you are disgrace to Islam (if you are a Muslim). It is waste of time talking to wahabis and salafis. Thank God these guys are negligible in Muslim counts. Yet, as I said before, you guys hurt the true image of Islam more than a Zionist propaganda can. In fact, I think you guys are part of this propaganda.
Let me give you an example of a married woman with a divorced man.
My father is divorced. My wife has been with me for over 34 years.
After my father was divorced he was looking for a date to take to his service club.
My wife volunteered.
I let her go because I trusted my wife and my father.
At the head table at these meetings they were introduced as Club member Mr. F. ****** and Mrs. *****, (same last names).
Everyone were oogled eyes because my wife was very younger than my father.
WHO CARES!
I trust my wife!
I trust my father!
Is there no trust in religion when it comes to women?
Are religious people afraid of women?
If it comes down to scientific fact. Men need women more than women need men.
Accept your position. Because if you don't the science will leave you behind.
In our marriage there are two rules.
1) The wife is always right.
2) If she is wrong, see rule #1.
We have worked together for all these years and it has been a joint relationship.
Neither of us are right all the time.
Negotiations work.
Still happily married!
Kimmy, my friends,
It is a waste of time arguing with these so called Muslims with short Thobes showing ankles and a long beard dyed in 'red'. They just remind me with those looks of Zionist rabbis who also calls for killing the other side. In fact they both are disgrace to humanity, and for me, they both are the most dangerous species on earth because they both poison heads of millions to kill each other. so close minded and both think they are the chosen ones. If they are, then I prefer to serve my time in hell than being aside of any of them :)
Haitham,
I would be proud and honoured to join you.
I am a Saudi woman.
I am proud to be a Saudi woman.
I know I come from a country where there is so much injustice, and i hate that.
There are those crazy few who ruin the world's view of people in Saudi Arabia.
My father(God bless him) is one of the most intelligent men i have ever met.
No i do not cover. and my father doesnt push me to. what he told me when i was 13 was: " I am asking you if you want to cover. if you want to , this is the time. if you do not it is your choice" if i were forced to fully cover myself i know i would be in the hell hole because i would be doing much worse things under that veil.
he lives by the idea that if we are forced to do certain things we will come to hate it and do much worse.
its all about tolerance. I have Muslim friends, Christian friends, hindu friends, and yes even a jewish friend( not extremist,not Israeli, there is a difference). but we do not judge eachother based on religion.
we judge people on the basis of their actions, and who they are.
of course I am prejudice in certain areas, but who isnt?
and again, its all down to interpretation of religious texts. just like i read : I am happy. one way you read it another way.
The basis of Islam is that we should spread peace.( Alsalamu alaykum w alaykum alsalam)
so people spread peace.
El Principessa,
I'm happy to know that you have such a wonderful Father with a great open mind. I just hope and wish that we have more like him everywhere. Not only in Saudi, but all the Muslim and Arab world. The story here does not tell that "you ca find this in Saudi only", but the fact that we have worse than this case in many other Arab and Muslim countries makes our part of the world looks really bad.
Anyway, God bless your father and all the open minded parents. You are a lucky girl :)
Savages.
How do you reconcile religion and conscience when you're Muslim.
Muhammad himself referred to women as being deficient in both intellect and religion, and it goes without saying that Shari'a law has no understanding of the concept of proportionality. In brief, a substantial portion of what Islam has to offer is about as appealing as an unflushed toilet, although the contents of the toilet are arguably more intelligent in nature.
the saudi comunity is shoked by this story ….and i blame the stupid gudge !!! actually he gave her this sentence acording to his own opinion not acourding to islam law….I think day after day our gudges become more stupid …..what a justes is that?????!!!!!
I am a Christian, but I would like to be logical and FAIR here (please do not rush and try to be the same!). I think she was punished not for being raped but for not respecting and following the rules that she already knew. She was innocent as far as the rape crime but, I believe, being with someone she was not supposed to be with, caused this to happen. Studying Islam, Islamic rules seem not to be about cures but about preventing the whole thing from happening. They are like "Do not even think about it". I think the court did look at the situation as "we would like to such crimes not to happen in our country at all so we need to stop the causes". We all know that, living in a country, you HAVE to follow the rules whatever they are. I believe the whole thing would not have been happened if she did not put herself into that situation by being with that man. As we all know, verdicts in similar crimes depend on (and are different according to) the situation. I personally think that the rapists knew the victim and the man she was with. It seems they were following them for some time and wanted a piece of her thinking the whole thing was going to be covered (remember, she was married). They knew she was doing something wrong and/or had something to hide that might prevent her from speaking up.
a shame what happened—but 2 b frank me and my friends dont have any sympathy for these lazy a$$ saudi women who treat other women from asian countries like dogs—where was the outrage when isma mahmood, a young paki girl last year was raped by this saudi beast in the holy city of medina?? where were those conceited arrogant saudi feminists? how about those indonesian,sri lankan, and filipina maids who were raped, beaten with hot iron and denied pay??? Probably they were in dubai and london on their shopping sprees imbibing alcohol, eating like boars and farting at their four course restaurants and talking gibberish just to kill time in order to live their purposeless and aimless sorry lives. now when the snake came and they got a taste of their medicine, now they r shamelessly crying foul
well, live with it now and feel the pain u pampered b–ches.
Beware any religion that incourages hatred,injustice,non-compassionite
dogma. American christians don't hate anyone of a different religion. We pray for you and that the true story of Jesus Christ(Not A Prophet),however the Son of God himself,will be shared, for in that story is one of wisdom,love,forgiveness,compassion and the freedom to live this way of life Only. I once was filled with Hate,for my daughters murderer,but I forgave him,just as I hope to be forgiven.I am praying that this Planet will attain True Wisdom and We Love Each Other in Peace. FORGIVE AND FORGET YESTERDAYS-THERE GONE-WE ONLY HAVE TODAY.
Sister In Christ,
Linda
{ 2 } Trackbacks
[...] The second incident [which has also been reported on Sabbah's blog] is about a Saudi gang rape victim who has been sentenced to 90 lashes of the whip because she was alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married. The victim and her friend were followed by the assailants to their car, kidnapped and taken to a remote farm, where the raping occurred [link]. This 'male friend' was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone with her in the car, and yet no mention was made that it so happens that the male friend was actually the man who came to her rescue… She was in the car with him as he rescued her, so they were both sentenced to 90 lashes each. [...]
Saudi court sentences rape VICTIM to 90 lashes | Sabbah Report http://tinyurl.com/yz5p865