Saudi Arabia Again Under Fire For 90 Lash Sentence Of School Girl
Posted: Saturday, January 23, 2010
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
After having had world opinion irritated a couple of times in the past year or so for the harsh sentences being handed out to their people. On two previous occasions they have either lowered the severity of the sentences or lifted them entirely.
Saudi Arabia has a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism whose punishment is commonly lashings. It is not the method which they use that seems to create the heavy criticism as it is the severity of it on women, young or old, and severe for the crime committed.
The cause of the current uproar is perhaps a legitimate charge worthy of some type punishment, but certainly in the eyes of the western world, not so severe. The report, seemingly factual, is that the 13 year old girl struck her teacher on the head with a glass after she had confiscated the girl's camera equipped cell phone. She was sentenced to 90 lashes and 2 months in prison.
The Saudi newspaper gave this account but named no people, or the school which was involved. It was also reported that the country's National Society for Human Rights was surprised and disturbed at the harshness of the sentence and has called for it to be reconsidered, saying it was too severe.
The case that caused the loudest world wide uproar came when a 19 year old woman and man were captured and gang raped by seven thugs. The rapists each received varying sentences of several years in prison. But the young woman victim received a sentence of 200 lashes and six months in prison for being alone in an automobile with a unrelated man. This brought on such an international outcry, including a personal message from then President Bush, King Abdullah pardoned the girl.
I am a firm believer that those who commit heinous crimes deserve punishment to somewhat match the crime. I do not even object to corporal or capital punishment for certain crimes, but these seem to be abnormally severe for the offense. I can't imagine anyone sentencing a 75 year old woman to a beating because two men were in her house!
They need to assess their program of punishment. If it is commanded by their religion, how then can the King rescind a sentence? I fail to see the reason they could not as easily forego sentencing so severely to begin with.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Me neither Joel; those who enforce the laws do not seem to be exactly feminists. I am sure Amnesty are interested in this. Interesting and informative, thankyou for writing.Thank you Carol for reading and commenting. Can you imagine, giving a 75 year old woman 40 lashes and four months in prison? That's enough to kill her.
Thanks, Joel. I read all your stuff. You might do one on the Laws themselves. Maybe a Koran study. I think the first 2 paragraphs should be reversed. It seems the 2nd is the topic paragraph.Thanks for reading and commenting Jack. I'm a little hesitant to write much about the Koran because Muslims take offense over just about anything you disagree with. And I disagree with most of it. I've written a couple of articles about it, one is my Searchwarp number 293270.
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