A case in Saudi has caught much attention.
The case was like this: a married woman was talking to her ex. Some other men came and raped her.
The rapists have been found and jailed. (They should actually be punished to death.)
The woman has been punished to lashes for being with a non-related man.
Now, she has been violated and that’s a major crime against her. She has already suffered a lot. Why punish her then? I mean she’s already suffered!
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Media Headline: “Rape Victim Punished“
What does that mean? It suggests that the woman was punished because she was violated. That’s (not) nonsense. (It’s a well conceived twist of words.)
She was not punished because she was raped. She was punished because she was guilty (according to UAE law) of something else.
Now, we can debate for days whether punishing a woman for being with non-makruh person or husband for millenia. But what I am trying to say is that she was not punished for being a rape victim.
I have heard that the Prophet used to preach to lone women.(Can somebody please confirm that?) But then he did not gossip or flirt with them.
And God knows best.
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People have suddenly become very concerned about the well-being of Muslim women. Fun is United States is behind Sri Lanka in gender equality index.
Sarson mein bhoot… (rough translation: “when a devil plays god”).
Let us sort our problems out.
That was not bcs she was a Shi’a? Saudi government doesnt treat good with Shi’as in Qatif. That’s oil city, yet people are very poor..
Shahzadi (can I call you this?), it may have played a role. Such prejudices are not uncommon. I can’t say for sure.
I don’t have a great opinion of the Saudi judiciary, based on the way they dealt with a case which I saw about 10 years ago. I was in Saudi at the time and a case of a foreigner vs a Saudi man came up.
It was a traffic accident. A Saudi man, behaving very erratically, threw himself in front of a foreigner’s car on a main highway. The foreigner swerved and braked to save him but couldn’t – the man hit his head onto the side of the car. The police came to the conclusion that there was no mistake on the foreigner’s part (it was a main expressway – pedestrians were not supposed to be there, eyewitnesses confirmed the man was behaving strangely, this foreigner immediately bundled the injured man in the car and drove him to the nearest hospital where he died shortly afterwards of his head injury). Judge listened to all the evidence and agreed with police.
Yet, the judge, under ‘influence’, changed his earlier verdict and demanded that the foreigner pay half of the ‘diya to the deceased’s family, because ‘they – the deceased’s family- insist it was it was your fault and you did not slow down the car’. Duh! The same police later browbeat the foreigner to accept 50% of the blame – ‘at least 40%’, because ‘after all, the man lost his life and you can pay him’.
Fair? No way! ‘Islamic’??? My foot.
We heard many similar stories from other people – how if foreigners were involved in any cases against Saudis, the foreigners would get the raw deal no matter what.
I am not anti-Saudi. I lived there for 10 years, and there were many positive experiences. In my day-to-day life, the Saudis I met with left me with impressions of them as hospitable, friendly, generous people, who love to honour their guests.
This incident involving our family friend was an eye-opener. Till then, we always viewed ‘Saudis’ as God-fearing people who would pause whatever they were doing when they heard the azaan, and then rush into the mosques to pray. God forgive me – among all those people, there are surely those who are good and honest.
But if you are a nation who profess to be so so so proud of being ‘Muslim’, it is a hundred times more important to uphold Islamic teachings of fairness and truthfulness. There are numerous traditions which emphasize the importance ‘adl’ (justice) and praise the ‘imam-ul-aadil’ (‘the just and fair judge’. So what happened then to the ‘fair judges’?
It’s a sad state of affairs.
*sigh…. there I go again, that comment was far longer than I intended….
mummyjaan
it was interesting. it did not feel very long.
but yes, it’s sad.
There are so many rape victims in Pakistan too, who got punished because they were not able to proved the rape, because the victim could not provide the judiciary with four eye witnesses…. the required number now has reduced to two !