Saudi Teenager, Sentenced to the Whip Because She was Raped!!!!!
Ron Ross
BFP News
Email: ronrossbfp@hotmail.com
14th March 2007
This is a sickening story.
Here's the context: "A Saudi woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped and then beaten by her brother, has been sentenced to 90 lashes for meeting a man who was not a relative."
My question! Where's the outcry from womens rights, human rights or the international community for common decency and justice?
Does this crime have no legitimacy because it happened over there - in Saudi Arabia?
Most of the world media closed a blind eye to the obscenity of what some call `justice.'
You can be assured if such an incident took place in Tel Aviv, the headlines would very bold indeed but somehow the Arab world is off limits to the press.
Foxnews and the Scotsman (Scottish newspaper) covered this story but the rest were missing in action.
International Womens Day was celebrated March 8. Most of the stories spoke about celebration and candle lighting ceremonies even in Saudi Arabia, but where was the story about the ordeal suffered by this poor woman.
She said she attempted suicide after the rape. She was beaten by her younger brother because her rape had brought shame on the family.
Don't you wonder about the intelligence or the wisdom applied to such a decision?
Nonie Darwish told Al Arabiya last week she is attending churches in the USA because she only hears of hate when she attends a mosque.
Where is the love for his sister in this macho brother?
Where is his sense of anger at the gang who raped her? Because they are men, they are above the law of human decency. How does that make sense in any society?
I would like to see a flood of emails, letters to the editor, asking the major media gurus why this story was not covered?
In fact AFP and some Arab outlets published it.
The Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates) and the Saudi Gazette covered the story. Most western press subscribe to AFP, so why no report?
The woman known as G is 19. She was abducted by the gang and taken to a farm where she was raped 14 times. Five men were arrested and given jail terms ranging from 10 months to five years by a panel of judges in the eastern Saudi city of Qatif, near the girl's hometown.
The judges sentenced G to 90 lashes and told her she was lucky not to receive jail time.
G says she will appeal against the sentence.
G told the Saudi Gazette she had been blackmailed by a man, who demanded she meet him at a shopping mall. He told her he would announce to her family they had been intimate, a major offence for women according to the ultra conservative laws of the Saudi kingdom.
It was from that mall meeting, she was abducted.
I hope to encourage a lot of people to make a lot of noise about this case and let's make it before her appeal is heard.
The Saudi system should know from all of us that the world is watching to see if they have any sense of decency or whether they are such an entrenched macho system that they should be considered uncivilized.
On the official International Womens Day website the only reference to Saudi Arabia promotes "Lighting candles for Women in Palestinian Society."
What about a candle or two for G and the women in Saudi Arabia?
Here's an alarm bell that also needs to be heard. Saudi Arabia enforces Islamic Sharia law.
This is the same system European Muslims want to introduce to Britain and France. In London recently the same Muslims said their women should be tried under Sharia law and not in the British courts.
If the world stays silent as well as ignorant, who will be the next victim?
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Three years ago he joined Bridges for Peace in Jerusalem to establish international radio news and an audio service webcast at www.bridgesforpeace.com Ron was Sports Editor of WINTV for 20 years before joining the full-time missions. You can contact Ron at : ronrossbfp@hotmail.com |
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