Saudi Justice
Outrage continues to reverberate in the international community against the barbaric "justice" meted out by an Islamic Sharia court in Saudi Arabia against the victim of a brutal gang rape. Saudi Arabia's fundamentalist Wahhabist regime has instilled and maintained a soul-destroying formula for the existence of women within the nation. Its strict dress code - extended to the presence of foreign females as well - is disregarded only by those who wish to bring the wrath of the religious police upon themselves.Saudi women are encouraged to shop in female-only markets, lest their appearance in public unleash ungovernable emotional responses in innocent men. Women are not permitted, by law, to be in a public venue in the presence of a male not of their immediate family. Saudi women may not legally drive a vehicle. There are few Saudi women able to practise professions, or actively engage in a work environment outside their homes. A repressive regime by any totalitarian standards.
A country where stoning to death is still applicable. Where, in lieu of stoning, a disciplinary exchange of lashing may be seen to be acceptable by the religious judiciary. It would seem that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz realizes and understands the backwardness of his country. It might also appear that he is attempting some tenuous, sensitively-gauged steps to haul his country and its people out of the dark ages. It would appear that his attempts at mild reform find no favour with Saudi Arabia's fundamentalist clerics and its religious police.
Not to mention other members of the Saudi royal family, less interested in entering the modern era, and the gradual emancipation of women with the relaxation of rigid Sharia laws. Under his initiative the Saudi government appears to have instituted some moves to relieve the situation of women in the kingdom, going so far as to set up special courts to handle domestic abuse cases; a new labour law addressing working women's rights, along with the creation of a human rights commission.
Surface changes for the moment. For despite the enacting of such bodies and laws, the old medieval concept of women as objects, subject to men's desires and priorities, not much appears to have changed for now. The brutal rape by a teen-age Saudi woman by seven men in eastern Saudi Arabia last year garnered the men brief prison sentences, while at the same time earning the victim another brand of punishment for her own offence of being in a public place with a man not of her family; albeit a previous suitor.
Now 19 years of age and married post-rape, her husband strenuously supports her while decrying the cruel punishment meted out to her by a rigid religious hierarchy oblivious to the plight of female victims. "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."
A Justice Ministry statement explained that the permanent committee of the Supreme Judicial council had recommended an increased sentence for the woman after she had appealed her original punishment of 90 lashes to 200 lashes. Her husband describes her emotional condition as that of a "crushed human being".
Labels: Middle East, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 23, 2007
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