A Modern Example of Medieval Practices: Women’s Rights In The Middle East
So you’ve all heard this story, right? Young girl gets gang-raped at knife point and then, according to her country’s Islamic law, she is sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail. No? Surprise.
Evidently, there’s no campaign for change* from Moveon.org. Code Pink isn’t taking to the streets. Katie Couric isn’t expressing outrage, and neither are the opinion-shapers on The View. Major newspapers aren’t making this headline news, either. Things have been pretty quiet over at The Huff, and NOW isn’t leading a public battle cry to end the injustice. Why? Perhaps this is one thing they can’t all blame on Bush. Coverage is therefore scarce. Best we could find is a few angry moms.
CNN reports: “A Saudi Arabian human rights attorney is asking the government to allow him to represent a woman who was gang-raped — and then sentenced to prison for speaking out about the case.” [See the video]
The attorney, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, had his license revoked last week by a judge for speaking to the Saudi-controlled media about the case, al-Lahim told CNN.
The judge more than doubled the sentence against al-Lahim’s 19-year-old client because she spoke to the media about the case, a court source told Arab News, an English-language Middle Eastern daily newspaper.
The woman — who was initially sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes — had her sentenced increased to 200 lashes and was ordered to serve six months in prison under Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic law.
“We were shocked,” al-Lahim said of the increased sentence.
CNN has been unable to reach Saudi government officials for comment on this report, despite repeated requests.
Shocked? Why? Seems entirely reasonable coming from the same culture that coined “honor killings“?
Celebrate diversity. Respect other cultures and religions, right?
But in all seriousness, we’re not against the Saudis. They’re our “friends“, after all. But let’s face it: as long as they have these kind of practices and laws to protect them in place, what should modern civilization, or perhaps more importantly, what should all modern women who enjoy western freedom, think of them?
Hoping we’ll read about it, somewhere, soon.
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