Here I blog about my personal experiences [posting rarely]
At my tumblelog Intoxicated by possibility I blog about my opinions/likes/dislikes [posting heavily]
Living in a place where the law is blind
Published by Abhilash Ravishankar on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 3:47 PMI read this in CNN today:
In March 2006, the woman, then 18 and engaged to be married, and an unrelated man were abducted from a mall in Qatif, Saudi Arabia and raped by a group of seven men.
In October, the men were convicted and sentenced to between two and nine years in prison for the assault. She was convicted of violating the kingdom's strict Islamic law by not having a male guardian with her at the mall.
"From the outset, my wife was dealt with as a guilty person who committed a crime," said her 24-year-old husband. "She was not given any chance to prove her innocence or describe how she was a victim of multiple brutal rapes."
The woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison. And this is her status now:
She suffers from anemia, a blood disorder , and asthma, he said. She will have surgery next month to remove her gallbladder.
And if that wasn't enough, the judge when giving out his sentence says:
You were involved in a suspicious relationship and you deserve 200 lashes for that'
And to top it all:
The woman was originally sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes, but when she appealed that sentence, the court more than doubled it.
Is this remotely fair? Being in Saudi, I do know that women are generally well respected in the society. But this isn't respect. I have always maintained that rape is the worst form of brutality - worse than homicide.
Somehow, this leaves me with a very uneasy feeling.
Atleast the criminals who raped her were punished.
I think she should have been pardon considering the situation. however, the system does not care about sentiments and just looks at, if the law was broken than should be punished.
There have been people who were innocent but were given even death sentence in the court of law in the U.S.
So why not fix problems at home first before crying out injustice elsewhere.
The system is not fare or 100% perfect anywhere in the world.