From AAP, 23 Nov. 07
SHOW SAUDI RAPE VICTIM COMPASSION: CLARK
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has urged Saudi Arabia to show compassion for a 19-year-old Saudi rape victim who has been sentenced to 200 lashes with a whip and six months in prison for being alone with an unrelated man.
The woman was gang-raped in 2006 by seven men who abducted her with her companion from a shopping mall. A Saudi court blamed her for being alone with a man who was not a relative.
Clark said that New Zealand fully respected Saudi Arabia's judicial system, but added: "Nonetheless, I hope that justice will prevail, and that the young woman, who is the victim in this case, will be shown leniency by the Saudi judiciary.
"I hope the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will demonstrate benevolence and compassion in this case."
Clark said she had asked New Zealand diplomats in Riyadh to make representations to the relevant Saudi authorities and to work with like-minded embassies from other countries in raising concerns.
She said she was also concerned to ensure that the woman received appropriate legal assistance, given that her lawyer had his licence to practice revoked last week.
The Shi'ite woman was originally sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes. That sentence was increased to 200 lashes and six months in prison last week, and the seven rapists given increased sentences of two to nine years in jail.
Under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than relatives.
Clark's statement noted that the Saudi government had recently taken some steps towards improving the situation of women, including establishing special courts to handle domestic-abuse cases, adopting a new labour law addressing the rights of working women and creating a human-rights commission.
Brought to you by AAP
No wander that some in influential positions talked about uncovered meat.
"Extend [our] hand to you, you extend [your] hand to us.
"Give us a fair go, we'll give you a fair go and that's what we want."
Under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than relatives.
You can not interfer with another countries culture. Leave it be.
You can not interfer with another countries culture. Leave it be.
If the rest of the world chooses not to recognise their so called 'culture' eventually they will be forced to give it up just like apartheid in South Africa and equal rights for women and blacks in the west.
These days we have the United Nations and international conventions about human rights.
Violence against women knows no boundaries, it knows no territory, no wealth level and it really occurs everywhere, in every country in the world today,” said Ms. Heyzer, in response to a reporter’s question about violence against women in the United States. While clarifying that UNIFEM’s mandate focuses on developing countries, Ms. Heyzer said the agency adhered to the standards and human rights norms of the United Nations as it looked at occurrences of gender-based violence around the world.
In response to a reporter’s question about why the Indian law making the Hindu ritual of sati illegal was not being enforced, Ms. Heyzer said monitoring and accountability systems were vital to making the best laws and policies work, especially at the local level. Sati is a ritual in which a woman immolates herself upon her husband’s death.
spot on - especially for the girls around hereWysiwyg said:Just shows that being born on a particular plot of land can make a lot of difference to life experiences.
When Helen Clark has cleaned up some of the horrific child abuse in New Zealand, then she will be perhaps in a position to be telling other countries how to manage their citizens.
Rather big difference thou Julia is that NZ child abuse isnt government sanctioned, where as whipping this rape victim is government sanctioned ....
From ABC, 27 Nov. 07
SAUDI FM CRITICISES RAPE LASH JUDGEMENT
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister has distanced his Government from a court's decision to sentence a rape victim to 200 lashes.
The woman, who was gang-raped, was sentenced to the lashes plus six months in jail for the crime of being alone with an unrelated man at the time of the attack.
Prince Saud al-Faisal says "bad judgements" happen in legal systems.
The court ruling has sparked outrage from international human rights groups.
From ABC, 29 Nov. 07
SAUDI JUDGES INSULTED ME, GANG RAPE VICTIM SAYS
A Saudi gang rape victim who was sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes was scolded by judges while police repeatedly dismissed her claims, she said in testimony published today.
The 19-year-old girl described the rape itself - including the fact that one of her attackers photographed her - and her struggle to eat or sleep in its immediate aftermath to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
She was attacked at knifepoint by seven men after she was found in a car with a male companion who was not a relative, in breach of strict Saudi law, and was initially sentenced last year to 90 lashes for being with the man.
Following her appeal, the court ordered her punishment should be increased to the current sentence, a decision which has attracted wide international condemnation from human rights groups to the White House.
According to the testimony published in Britain's The Independent newspaper, once the girl's husband found out about the gang rape, he told the police and appealed for the rapists to be arrested, to which a police officer said: "You go find them and investigate."
The husband telephoned the police on four separate occasions before any action was taken.
Once in the courtroom, the girl, who has not been identified, was questioned repeatedly by the judges about the nature of her relationship with the man she had met with, and why she had left the house.
"They used to yell at me. They were insulting ... One judge told me I was a liar because I didn't remember the dates well," she said.
"They kept saying, 'Why did you leave the house? Why didn't you tell your husband?'"
SENTENCING
After the initial sentence of 90 lashes was announced in court, she was told by a judge that she "should thank God that you're not in prison".
Her husband told Human Rights Watch that after the first sentence, "It was like she was the criminal."
"When the judges passed down the sentence, I asked them, 'Don't you have any dignity?'"
The assailants' sentences were also toughened on appeal to between two and nine years.
Their sentences fell short of the death penalty - which could be imposed in a rape conviction - due to the "lack of witnesses" and the "absence of confessions" as required by Islam, the justice ministry said.
Also in the testimony to HRW, the girl said she had met with the man in the car because she "had a relationship with [him] ... on the phone" and was hoping to take back a photograph of her that she had given him.
They were stopped by another car and taken to a secluded area: "They took me to a dark place. Then two men came in. The first man with the knife raped me ... I tried to force them off but I couldn't."
After four of the men raped her, "The fifth took a photo of me like this. I tried to cover my face but they didn't let me."
Two more men then raped her, and after being informed the time was 1:00 am, she was then raped again by all seven men.
The group then took her home: "When I got out of the car, I couldn't even walk. I rang the doorbell and my mother opened the door. She said, 'You look tired'."
"I didn't eat for one week after that. Just water. I didn't tell anyone. I can't sleep without pills. I used to see their faces in my sleep," she said.
Saudi Arabia's justice ministry said on Saturday the woman had admitted having an extramarital affair with the man in the car.
HRW dismissed the ministry's claims, though, with Farida Deif, researcher in HRW's women's rights division, saying: "The Ministry of Justice's response to criticism of its unjust verdict has been appalling".
"First, they attempted to silence this young woman, and now they're trying to demonise her in the eyes of the Saudi public."
- AFP
Yes, you're right, Numbercruncher. I guess I just feel more concerned for little children who are entirely defenceless than I do for adult women who as far as I know could live somewhere other than Saudi Arabia.
mmm I also (totally) disagree Julia.than I do for adult women who as far as I know could live somewhere other than Saudi Arabia.
plot :- After many years of marriage to an Iranian doctor named Moody (Alfred Molina), Betty (Sally Field) is convinced by him to visit his family in Tehran for the first time. Although she has a lot of trepidation about traveling to the Middle East, her fear of violence is overcome by sympathy for her husband, who misses his family. After Moody swears on the Koran that everything will be fine, Betty agrees to go. The happy couple set out with their young daughter, Mahtob, on a planned two week family vacation.
Immediately upon arrival, Betty is forced to wear the traditional black veil, and is nearly arrested for inadvertently exposing some of her hair. Contrary to everything Betty had previously been led to believe, her husband's family turn out to be fanatically devout and conservative Muslims, who are very unhappy with the prospect of an American in-law. Towards the end of their scheduled holiday, her husband reveals that he has been fired from his job in the United States and that he has decided the family will stay in Iran. Suddenly, she sees a completely different side of him. When she objects to staying, he beats her and takes her credit cards, money and identification. She soon realizes that she and her daughter had became prisoners in her sister-in-law's home. She manages to call her own mother in the U.S. who provides her with an Embassy contact, before her husband cuts off her access to the telephone.
Betty sneaks out of the house and gets to the Swiss Embassy, where she learns that under Iranian law women have no rights concerning the children; her daughter is considered an Iranian citizen and cannot be taken out of the country without Moody's signed permission
etc etc
You can not interfer with another countries culture. Leave it be.
Well, I wonder how it is that several times in recent years I have heard both Saudi and Iranian women being interviewed on Radio National who have left their home countries to pursue an education in the USA.
I'm not contradicting what you are saying necessarily but should we therefore assume that the women I have heard have had the blessing of their "superior male"?
With thought for the woman victim, it shows us the differences in freedom around the world.Australian whitey history is short but we (Australians) certainly have one of the freest? societies on this planet.
Just shows that being born on a particular plot of land can make a lot of difference to life experiences.
LOL are you ****ing serious?
Your bitterness toward Aboriginals is understandable and i hope you find a resolution to your problem.
If you have unfair treatment cases toward Aboriginals then you should report them to the authorities.
mean?Your bitterness toward Aboriginals is understandable
If you have unfair treatment cases toward Aboriginals then you should report them to the authorities.
RAPED AND REVENGED (an epitaph written in some wartime situation , who knows where)
Rudyard Kipling
One used and butchered me: another spied
Me broken - for which thing an hundred died.
So it was learned among the heathen hosts
How much a freeborn woman's favour costs.
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