Saudi Arabia Rape victim gets 200 lashes

Arab News reported a court in Saudi Arabia punished a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail. She was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of rape.

A year-and-a-half ago in the Eastern Province town of Qatif, Saudi Arabia, a seven men gang raped a 19 year old girl 14 times. The three judges who presided this case instead of punishing just the attackers, punished the girl as well and sentenced her to 90 lashes for being in a car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape. Women in Saudi Arabia are not permitted to drive cars, so they rely on relatives to take them if they had to visit place. If they are found in a stranger’s car they get punished with lashes and prison term in some cases. In this case the three wise men punished the rape victim. The Qatif General Court sentenced the rape victim to 90 lashes for being in the car of an unrelated male and sentenced the seven rapists ranging from 10 months to five years in prison. This caused quiet an outrage in the Arab world and the victim’s lawyer, Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, appealed to the courts and said the punishment is lenient for the rapists, while it is unjust for the victim. So, what was the response from the General Court, they doubled the number of lashes for a rape victim as well as jail terms for her assaulters. They topped it off by suspending the victim’s lawyer from defending her in the future. The Saudi Appeals Court sentenced the victim to 200 lashes and six months in prison. The seven victims had their prison terms increased to between two and nine years. This has caused quiet a stir in Saudi Arabia as well as in other Arab countries. The reason the Saudi Appeals Court increased the punishment for the rape victim was “her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.” Judge Soliman Al-Muhanna from the Qatif court told the lawyer (Al-Lahem) that the judicial committee had decided to suspend him from the case. They also confiscated his license which is granted to Saudi lawyers by the Ministry of Justice. Al-Lahem tried his best to persuade the judge that he was just doing his job trying to defend his client, but they did not listen and suspended him. He was sent a new letter to attend the disciplinary session on 25th of the Hijra month. The reason was he was trying to advertise his services and that is against the Saudi law. The case has angered members of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite community. The convicted men are Sunni Muslims, the dominant community in the oil-rich Gulf state. What do you think about this decision to punish a rape victim with 200 lashes? I don’t know which part of the world it will be ok to do that, maybe outside our solar system.