WOMEN ARE OPPRESSED IN SAUDI ARABIA
Saudis Earn Low Rank in Women's Rights
May 21, 2005
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Saudi Arabia ranked last in a study of women's rights in Middle Eastern and North African countries and was the only one of 16 nations surveyed that had no constitutional guarantees of equal protection for females, according to a report released Saturday.
Despite gains in educational and employment opportunities and the recent decision by Kuwait's parliament to grant women the right to vote, there was a lack of legal protections for women in all 16 nations and one territory studied, said Freedom House, the nonpartisan, Washington-based organization that released the report at the World Economic Forum.
The countries studied were evaluated on five categories: nondiscrimination and equal access to justice; autonomy, security and freedom of the individual; economic rights and equal opportunity; political rights and civic voice; and social and cultural rights.
Countries were then ranked between 1 and 5 in each category, with Saudi Arabia having the lowest average of 1.26. The average for Tunisia was highest, at 3.24. No country received a ranking higher than 3.6 in any category.
The report was presented at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, where Queen Rania and other women's rights activists called for reform through changes in the Arab media's portrayal of women.
Saudi court sentences rape victim to 90 lashes
DPA, THE JERUSALEM POST
Nov. 2, 2006
A Saudi court has sentenced a gang rape victim to 90 lashes of the whip because she was alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married.
The sentence was passed at the end of a trial in which the al- Qateef high criminal court convicted four Saudis convicted of the rape, sentencing them to prison terms and a total of 2,230 lashes.
The four, all married, were sentenced respectively to five years and 1,000 lashes, four years and 800 lashes, four years and 350 lashes, and one year and 80 lashes.
A fifth, married, man who was stated to have filmed the rape on his mobile phone still faces investigation. Two others alleged to have taken part in the rape evaded capture.
Saudi courts take marital status into account in sexual crimes. A male friend of the rape victim was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone with her in the car.
The court heard that the victim and her friend were followed by the assailants to their car, kidnapped and taken to a remote farm, where the raping occurred.
The victim was quoted by Okaz newspaper as saying she had expected harsher penalties for the assailants, especially as they had pleaded not guilty.
Her husband and family said that they would appeal to the court Saturday for harsher penalties for a crime which has shocked public opinion in Saudi Arabia and been the subject of months of debate.