[Qatif, Saudi Arabia] - Rape is an emotive issue the world over. Each one we learn about shocks all the more when we realise the number of unreported rapes it represents. However, our disgust is intensified when authorities, who should protect the victims and deliver justice to the rapists, themselves abuse the victims of rape.
The 19-year old Saudi lady, recently married, known as The Girl Of Qatif sought the return of her photo from a high school friend. The friend was a boy and she believed it to be inappropriate for him to have the photo. In a sign of goodwill the boy agreed to hand over the photo. They met in a car and he drove her home. Only they never got home.
The above paragraph describes the events which the Saudi Minister of Justice, Dr Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim Al Al-Sheikh, described as provoking rape.
He made this declaration as he backed-up a Judges descision to punish the girl for being in a car with a man who was not a blood relative or her husband. She will receive 90 lashes (bulked up to 200 after an appeal on the girl's behalf) and a 6-month prison sentence for lewd behaviour. This in itself is disturbing in a modern world. However, the worse thing is that the judge and justice ministers have decided that this provoked a rape by seven men on her and the friend.
Her male friend received a similar sentence while four of the rapists received sentencs from two to nine years in prison and a minimum of 80 lashes. They could serve lighter sentences than the girl they raped.
The judge when asked to justify his sentencing said that the girl "provoked the attack," was "inappropriately dressed" and he had based his sentencing on "the book of God and prophet Mohammed's teachings." Of course Islam and Arabic Sharia law are deeply entwined. No other religion in the world has laws of a Nation state based on it.
The legitimacy of the Judge's decision rests not on the Quoran but instead on the arbitary nature of the Saudi Justice system. For, as Abdul Rahman Al-Lehem counters, the Judge's decision to punish a rape victim and then increase her penalty for talking to the media (to gain a crumb of local sympathy) runs counter to the founding principles of sharia law. Not only that but Sharia-Islamic law also states that the rapists should face the death penalty. It is clear, as Al-Lehem believes, that the Judge has let his personal prejudices get in the way of Justice in an already biased and unjust system.
The case of the Girl of Qatif, who awaits her fate, is sadly not alone in this world. The power of the West to intervene and save such victims appears to be minimal. A couple of years ago a court ordered a Mukhtar Mai to be raped for the sins of her realatives. The girl was then threatened with death and was afforded no protection by the Pakistani government.
It is not just Islamic countries either. On Wednesday an Australian lady living in Kanagawa, Japan, lost her lawsuit against the Japanese Police for unfair treatement stemming from a rape ordeal. She was raped by an American soldier who has since been allowed to go back to America without charge. On the night of the rape when she went to the local Police Station for help she received grossly unfair treatment. The police as standard took her underclothes but failed to replace them. They then took her straight to the rape scene so she could tell them what happened. She was then kept for more than ten hours in the police station without food or water and the police refused to take her to a hospital to treat her physical injuries which included cuts and bruises to her chest and legs. Despite all that the Judge decided that the lady was not "physically or mentally in need of urgent care from [the] police" and that it "was no obvious that she needed police to accompany her to a hospital."
This is hardly surprising from a nation that has men's magazines depicting rape and abuse victims as evil women intent on destroying the lives of innocent men.
Sadly the world has a long way to go before women are treated with the respect they deserve by men. In fact we cannot even deal with the consequences of rape and with the rapists let alone prevent rape from ever happening again. We have a long way to go and while it is easy to pick out monstrous international cases such as those mentioned in this article we have to make sure we have our own societies sorted out first. Any number above zero is a high number. Home | Back |