Speak Out for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia
07:59, 25 November 2007
.. Posted in Personal.. Link
She has become known as the "Qatif girl", a reference to the largely Shia town in Saudi Arabia where she lives. In March 2006, when she was 18 years old and engaged to be married, she was at a mall with a close male friend. They were attacked by a gang of seven men. Both she and her friend were gang raped. Four of the attackers were convicted of kidnapping, but the court also sentenced the rape victim and her friend to receive 90 lashes each for the crime of "illegal mingling". In November 2007, the court INCREASED the woman's sentence to 200 lashes and six months in jail. It also banned her lawyer from the courtroom and took away his licence. The Saudi justice ministry said the sentence was justified because the woman was in a car with an unrelated man.
Yes, that's right: Saudi Arabia has jailed a gang rape victim, and will soon unleash a horrific physical punishment upon her. That a woman who has been raped should deserve any kind of punishment at all is hard for most of us to grasp -- that she will be further brutalized is incomprehensible and absolutely shameful.
The woman's husband has stood by her in a very public way; through CNN, he is appealing to the international media to increase pressure on the Saudi government to have the sentence reversed. He said "The court proceedings were like a spectacle at times. The criminals were allowed in the same room as my wife. They were allowed to make all kinds of offensive gestures and give her dirty and threatening looks." Yes, in the 21st Century, this kind of shameful behavior is happening.
There has been little response from the USA administration -- apparently, Saudi Arabia gets a blank check when it comes to human rights, but Burma better watch out!
You can read more about the story from Human Rights Watch. And you can take action by writing the Saudi Arabia Embassy in the USA, and telling them that such behavior is outrageous and shameful to Islam and humankind. Also, write your congressional representative and tell him or her that you expect MEANINGFUL action to be taken on their part to speak out about this outrage. Use respectful but FIRM language. Remember: silence means approval.
