You may remember the case of the Shia Muslim woman from the Qatif area who was raped at knife-point by seven men. Initially she was sentenced to 90 lashes for being found in the company of a man who was not her husband. When she appealed the case and went public with her ordeal, the angry judges suspended her lawyer’s court license and increased her sentence to six months in prison and 200 lashes.
Today, the woman concerned has been ‘pardoned’ by King Abdullah.
Saudis are used to the public beheadings of murderers and amputations of the hands of pickpockets, but the Qatif girl’s ordeal embarrassed the country at a time Riyadh is negotiating major international business deals and emerging as a potential broker in Middle East peace talks. The government said it would review the case, an indication that the king may want to overrule Islamic fundamentalists.
King Abdullah is widely regarded as a modernizer in a royal family balanced between those favouring change and others who insist on maintaining a strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Satellite TV and the Internet have created a more open media and the king has supported local elections, even if they offer only token democracy. But liberals and human rights activists complain that hard-liners remain in control of the courts, Interior Ministry and other government agencies.
“Don’t expect big changes and sudden successes, but reform has taken root,” said Mishary A. Alnuaim, the vice dean of law and political science at King Saud University. “Modernizing religion is still slow. … You still find a lot of messages of intolerance… Much of this is about the real or imagined invasion of Western culture. … The religious hard-liners want to produce the argument that the Muslim world is still being victimized by Western influence and political power.”
Reforming the judiciary is one of the most sensitive political challenges facing the king. The Saudis have parallel legal systems — one of civil regulations, and the other a more prominent Sharia system based on strict adherence to the Koran. Criminal cases, including the rape of the Qatif girl, are presided over by religiously conservative judges who hold that holy texts are not bound by civil or man-made laws.
Despite discussion of merging the two systems, the religious judges hold tremendous sway; they represent a form of Islam that has kept the royal family in power for generations. They are also regarded by many Saudis as the only check and balance on the monarchy.
Yet their decisions draw frequent condemnation from international humanitarian groups and from Saudi activists for disregarding the rights of women, who are forbidden to drive or vote, and face restrictions on employment, dress and place in the family.
Some Saudi writers and commentators, in a rare outburst of harsh criticism, said the sentence, which is under government review, has embarrassed the nation.
“It is a tale that is more reminiscent of the cruel callous punishments meted out to women in medieval times. And yet sadly it is a case that is making headlines in the 21st century,” Lubna Hussain wrote in an op-ed piece in the Saudi-based Arab News. “The judges looked into their crystal ball and saw that she had ‘the intention of doing something bad’ and this, therefore, constituted a very good reason for her to be gang raped. Always the woman’s fault, but of course!”
Although the decision to ‘pardon’ the woman is to be welcomed, some issues of concern still remain.
First, although the punishment has been avoided, there is no clear sense that the innocence of the victim has been proclaimed, in fact the verdicts have been upheld in some quarters. The justice ministry had defended the woman’s punishment, branding her an adulteress who “provoked the attack” because she was “indecently dressed”. The Saudi justice minister, Abdullah bin Muhammed al-Sheikh, told Al Jazirah newspaper that the decision was based on concern for Qatif girl’s welfare.”The king always looks into alleviating the suffering of the citizens when he becomes sure that these verdicts will leave psychological effects on the convicted people, though he is convinced and sure that the verdicts were fair,” he said. It feels like a pragmatic fudge.
Secondly, the attackers were not convicted of rape, but of kidnapping, this, according to Human Rights Watch, because the prosecutors could not prove rape. Apparently the prosecutors ignored the evidence provided by a mobile phone video taken by the men during the assault.
I’m glad the king stepped in and “pardoned” the woman. I wish he could have done more, but he’s probably really constrained by the system within which he works and lives. Frankly, I can’t imagine how stressful it must be for a leader attempting to modernize an outdated, repressive society. As you noted, the king and his cohorts are trying to reform an entire system filled top to bottom with many people whose views differ sharply from theirs. The result in this case is far short of what we westerners would want, and it’s okay to acknowledge that there’s still room for more progress, but it is still a significant decision in a country known for its brutal treatment of women.
A step in the right direction, now will they abandon a strict adherence to Sharia law and the lunatic Wahabists?
I am just so pleased this evening to hear this news. Thanks for signing the petition sent to you for this women’s sentence to be squashed. Her legal sentence has been eliminated, but what about the sentence she still bears for what has happened to her?
As I understand video evidence here is not upheld in the UK. What concerns me though is, was there no DNA evidence? This suggests to that the medical attention this women may have received was mimimal or likely not at all. I may be wrong on this point and hope I am. Because she was assaulted by so many, this attention is even more important. I state an obvious point I know but how is this women now,and will she feel partly to blame for what happened, given her countries position on this?
I’m mindful after reading about the Qatif lady of just why I haven’t encouraged my son to seek out his father in Saudi Arabia. He has asked more than once as a child and now as a young adult qbout finding his father. He’s never met his dad
and has two pictures of him. In fact neither of us have seen or heard anything from his since we got engaged. I was an American in high school in the US and he was a student in college. After I became pregnant, he graduated from college and I from High school. My brothers were angry and wanted to harm him. I begged them to spare and my parents met with him. We decided to get engaged and he promised to return and never did. My attempts to reach him were never answered by the Saudi officials in Washington and I was told that frankly I should be lucky to be alive. Similar attempts to get my own government also were ignored. It seemsed they wanted to protect Saudi Arabis more than they did me. I struggled to raise my son alone and in shame for years. My family did support us as well. My son grew up angry because he learned that his father left us and never returned. I wish sometimes I could turn back the clock when I first met my son’s father;
I was young and in love; I gave birth to my son at 18. In the US; fathers and mothers must take responsibility for their children, married or single. I guess we are both just lucky to be alive. I’ve never told my son this story because somehow I want him to believe that his fathered still cares….
While my issues are very different from the lady in Qatif; my heart really goes out to her and I hope she will find the power to carry on…
Amber
It must be very difficult for you. Apart from possibly ‘not caring’, he may presumably could be put in danger by the contact? Thanks for commenting.