Saudi Arabia punishes a gang rape victim with 200 lashes. A lower court had initially ruled she should receive 90 lashes for being in a vehicle with a male who was not related to her. A second court more than doubled her total:
A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.They treat women like crap. They are misogynists. A woman who says she's been raped has a burden of proof that is nearly impossible to prove, and is likely to end up on the wrong end of a beating for her trouble.
The 19-year-old woman -- whose six armed attackers have been sentenced to jail terms -- was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape," the Arab News reported.
But in a new verdict issued after Saudi Arabia's Higher Judicial Council ordered a retrial, the court in the eastern town of Al-Qatif more than doubled the number of lashes to 200.
A court source told the English-language Arab News that the judges had decided to punish the woman further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."
That's right. She was punished more severely for trying to get the media to pay attention to the horrifying details of her case and to get someone to intervene on her behalf in the Magic Kingdom. Never mind that they're punishing the victim of a gang rape - they're adding insult to injury.
Where are the international human rights organizations and womens rights groups to protest this? Where is the Bush Administration to make a statement on such behavior? The world looks on with indifference as women throughout the world are treated no better than a piece of property, and nowhere is that more true than in those places where the Islamists hold sway.
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