Regards, Ivan
Posted on 07/05/2004 3:09:22 PM PDT by MadIvan
A POPULAR Saudi newsreader has pardoned her husband for beating her almost to death, allowing his release from prison after less than three months.
In a case that has broken Saudi taboos and prompted a tightening of laws to protect women, Rania al-Baz, a presenter with Saudi Television’s Channel One, withdrew her right for monetary compensation. She also waived the right under Sharia (Islamic law) to inflict a beating of equal severity on her husband, Mohammed al-Fallatta, and requested his release.
The television presenter was savagely beaten on April 4 because she kept answering the phone at the family home. Mr al-Fallatta repeatedly punched his wife in the face then smashed her head against a marble floor while throttling her. When he thought she was dead he put her in the family car, apparently with the intention of burying her, but she regained consciousness. He panicked, dumped her at the entrance to a hospital and drove off.
Mrs al-Baz suffered 13 facial fractures and is still undergoing reconstructive surgery.
The beating would have remained just another sad case of marital abuse if Mrs al-Baz had not decided to go public. She released photographs of her badly bruised and swollen face and granted interviews from her hospital bed.
Her plight caused outrage throughout Saudi Arabia. Although wife-beating is thought to be widespread, the kingdom’s strict Islamic society generally ensures the subject remains taboo. Islamic law provides women with protection from abuse but courts tend to rule in favour of men.
Saudis have an aversion to public debate and scandal, preferring instead the timehonoured tribal practice of deciding matters behind closed doors.
“It has caused a sensation in that this is a private society yet she went on television and spoke about it and campaigned against violence to women . . . she is a ground breaker,” said Khaled al-Maieena, a columnist with Saudi Arabia’s Arab News English-language daily.
Saudi Arabia remains a profoundly conservative country despite mounting calls for reform, generally pitting intellectuals, the business community and the more cosmopolitan populations on the east and west coasts against the powerful religious establishment and the traditionally conservative desert heartland.
Mrs al-Baz has not said why she has decided to forgive her husband, but it is believed to be part of a divorce deal that will allow her to keep custody of their two children.
Mr al-Maieena said: “What she has done will make errant or violent husbands rethink their ways.”
Mr al-Fallatta, who disappeared after the assault, turned himself in when the case attracted huge media attention. He was initially charged with attempted murder but the charges were later reduced to severe battery. He was sentenced to six-months in prison and 300 lashes of the whip, a punishment that was considered lenient in view of the severity of the crime.
He has been in trouble with the law before. He is suspected of drugging and kidnapping his sister, Hannan, a popular singer, from her home in Beirut two years ago.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
I cant imagine anything more savage than Sharia law. Unless of course you consider what the Patriot Act will turn into under Clinton-Qerry, er Qerry-Clinton..
I picked up a few arabic jokes from a friendly Saudi fellow.
What does a Saudi wife do after she returns from the battered woman's shelter?
The Laundry! Praise ALLAH!!!!
What has a Saudi prince done wrong if his wife comes out of the kitchen carrying 3 of his twenty children while yelling and screaming at him.
He made the chain to long!!! Praise ALLAH!!!!!!
I wonder how she'll feel, the next time he smashes her head off a marble floor, or kidnaps his sister?
I have seen many battered wives forgive their husbands and go back to them, I think its a mental deficiency. If a husband beats his wife odds are he will do it again. Personally I think a beating with a baseball bat from the father of the battered wife is a good solution.
I don't know that forgiveness is possible after that. There has to be another motive.
Fear causes people to do strange things that cannot be considered sane or reasonable.
Somebody should send this lady some of those new bandages made out of recycled shrimp shells!
muslim men are humiliated by woman's panties. muslim men commit hideous circumcision on women. muslim men beat their women. I'm starting to get the impression muslim men have issues with certain, umm, physical shortcomings?
you would be surprised.
But it's normal part of life for women under Sharia.
A relative has a co-worker who's ex-wife married an Egyptian and moved to Egypt. He was telling the relative that the ex's current husband beat the woman, knocked out all of her teeth and put her in the hospital. Under Egyptian law, unless she is in the hospital more than 20 days it is not serious enough to warrant criminal charges.
That's just sick.
The article suggests that she doesn't want to go back to him, but to get a favorable divorce and custody of the children. In that case it may make sense for her to settle--although I hope she can afford a couple of round the clock bodyguards.
I'm inviting the creep to meet me at my dojang and see how he likes trying to beat someone in his own weight class. First lesson is free.
If the left wing American and British media thought they could make such rubbish stick, they would have done so a long time ago.
Regards, Ivan
***I have seen many battered wives forgive their husbands and go back to them, I think its a mental deficiency.***
I think it's a lack of self respect. If a woman is raised to think women should be beaten if not obedient, she will blame herself for the beating. Just another reason why all women need fathers who cherish them, no matter what NOW preaches about not needing family values.
"I think it's a lack of self respect..."
You have to remember that it is influence of that sick society. People in North Korea also think that they live in the best country...
He might not have survived the beating and she would be done with him for good.
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