Posted on 11/22/2006 4:55:09 AM PST by IrishMike
AL-AWWAMIYA, Saudi Arabia (Nov. 21) - When the teenager went to the police a few months ago to report she was gang-raped by seven men, she never imagined the judge would punish her - and that she would be sentenced to more lashes than one of her alleged rapists received.
The story of the Girl of Qatif, as the alleged rape victim has been called by the media here, has triggered a rare debate about Saudi Arabia's legal system, in which judges have wide discretion in punishing a criminal, rules of evidence are shaky and sometimes no defense lawyers are present.
The result, critics say, are sentences left to the whim of judges. These include one in which a group of men got heavier sentences for harassing women than the men in the Girl of Qatif rape case or three men who were convicted of raping a boy. In another, a woman was ordered to divorce her husband against her will based on a demand by her relatives.
In the case of the Girl of Qatif, she was sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married - a crime in this strictly segregated country - at the time that she was allegedly attacked and raped by a group of other men.
In the sleepy, Shiite village of al-Awwamiya on the outskirts of the eastern city of Qatif, the 19-year-old is struggling to forget the spring night that changed her life. Her hands tremble, her dark brown eyes are lifeless. Her sleep is interrupted by a replay of the events, which she describes in a barely audible whisper.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ...
I guess you flunked semantics.
RAPE doesn't mean "sleeping with".
I can't find any verification anywhere that Deval Patrick is associated with Nation of Islam, other than that they supported his candidacy for governor of MA. What info do you have that supports that he is Muslim?
Now I don't care who you are, that's funny right there!
"It's quite remarkable that she gets punished more than the rapist. The Bible is so much more evenhanded and kills them both..."
Oh, and in which Christian countries is this done presently?
*crickets*
I guess you flunked theology. I didn't want to have to continue the chapter, but here goes, in KJV...which explicitly states the word "rape"...
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor, 27 for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her.(In case you don't get it, the idea is that if it's in the city, then she obviously "wanted it" if she didn't cry out.)
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.--Deuteronomy 22:25-29 (KJV)
And if you like the idea of a girl getting to marry her rapist, perhaps you'll like the Lego version. Personally, I find the ideas repugnant.
Not that obvious. Sorry. How much worse is this than the dirtbag judge who forced a 7-year old girl to have to visit an old maid female pervert instead of having a "dad and a dog?" She might have preferred a whipping if it would have put an end to being molested by the court system itself. What the left wants, as a start, is a judicial oligarchy and an end to limited government. They want a court which has the power of these jackass Arabians, and if by some chance they might make this kind of ruling, well--the classic leftwing exoneration for obscene tyranny is ever at their finger tips: yes, it's unfortunate but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and it's better for an occasional individual to be inconvenienced than the reactionary forces of repression triumph over our progressive brothers and sisters...blah blah blah...That's what they want, and Shariah law is compatible with it, just so long as they, like the sheiks, get to be exempt and spend their time in dissolute French resorts.
Deval patrick is a moslem? Who knew?
So what you're saying is that a religion can't be judged by what its holy works say? Okay, fair enough.
After about 1936 owning a business was illegal if you were a Jew in germany. Got the same answer? "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time little jewboy?"
The judicial branch in this country is no better or worse than the other 2 branches.
Whew. That Van Gogh video is magnificent. No wonder he was killed.
So it would be ok with her, I suppose. Gang raped and then mega-flogged. What a POS.
I don't really see the connection between that and what were discussing.
The society this was written for was very different from our own and women were considered objects. By forcing the man who rapes a woman to marry her and NEVER BE ABLE TO DIVORCE HER, you are setting up a strong disincentive for any male to rape a woman. By requring him to pay the father, the law is rcognizing the cultural norm at the time that the crime was as much a crime against property as the father owned his children as well as his wife, as a crime against a person.
What this neolithic concept has to do with modern day people living in Saudi Arabia escapes me.
Perhaps you flunked logic also.
Actually, I got perfect scores on every exam, and scored an 800 on my GRE analytical section, but that was long, long ago...so perhaps you could formally clarify the logical fallacy you claim I have made.
The society this was written for was very different from our own and women were considered objects.
So what you're saying is that they must change their culture and abandon these practices, despite them being written in holy books. I am not Jewish and don't understand how they have abandoned such practices without the New Testament, but it seems to me that the "cultural norm" in the Arab world is the concept of women as property.
So perhaps it's not "Islam" per se, but rather the culture. How about other Muslim countries, outside the Arab world? Could it be that the culture and religion are so tied together in Islam, moreso than how most other religions are practiced today?
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I've gotta hit the road!
Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
This site is too addictive.
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