Human Rights Watch is appealing to King Abdullah of
Fawza Falih confessed to practicing witchcraft after being beaten by the Saudi religious police. She retracted her confession in court saying it was extracted under duress. She also said that as an illiterate woman she did not understand the documents she was forced to fingerprint. However, witnesses testified that she had bewitched them including one man who was suddenly impotent. According to another witness, a divorced woman reportedly returned to her ex-husband during the month predicted by the witch said to have cast the spell. For this she has been sentenced to death.
In November, Egyptian pharmacist Mustapha Ibrahim, who worked in the northern city of
These are the same fine folks who within the past few months:
- Suppress Valentine’s Day annually,
- Jailed Ahmed al-Farham for advocating reform in the Saudi kingdom on his blog.
- Charged a woman with adultery who had been gang raped and sentenced her to prison and to receive 200 lashes by a whip. King Abdullah pardoned her for her “crime.” (See here, here, here and here.)
- Convicted two gay men of sodomy and flogged them 7000 lashes each.
1 comment:
Thank you for writing this story. And the examples you cite are truly horrendous.
I do wish that there would be a bit more balance though in reports on Saudi Arabia. I lived in a middle class Saudi neighborhood in Riyadh from 1990 to 1996 - and there is much to say about the Saudis that is positive.
These people have come from tribal desert people to the modern technological world in two generations, due to the discovery of oil 1938. These people close every store, every barbershop, ever gas station five times a day, seven days a week to go to prayer. They have wonderful family values with extended families meeting together almost every night. Despite the western perception, women are treated with respect and generally don’t see themselves as being oppressed. My best friend was a Saudi whose father had two wives. I traveled extensively all over the country and much of the Middle East. These are among the most hospitable people in the world,
There’s not an old age home in the country as families take care of their own. Marriages, though still generally somewhat arranged, are by all accounts rather happy, as mothers have a sense of what would be a good match for their sons. And crime is almost non-existent. I felt completely safe anywhere in the country 24/7.
One might try and stand above this and try and neutrally view how Saudis see America – with the projection of crime, the blatant worshipping of sexuality, and the obsessive materialism and individual selfishness.
I don’t condone the examples you cited – I only wish that enlightened readers would view your posting in context.
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