 Rachel Abrams has a powerful blog post that I wanted to reprint here. The Saudis are tackling Al-Qaeda and have made reforms to help combat terrorism, but terrorism isn’t Islamic extremism’s only manifestation. To those that want to paint Saudi Arabia as the “moderate” example we’re looking for, read her words below: When they condemn a woman who’s been gang-raped to 200 lashes for “having sex outside marriage,” or give a destitute 75-year-old widow 40 lashes for engaging in “prohibited mingling” by receiving charity from two young male relatives, or, in the most recent (known) instance, sentence a 13-year-old girl to 90 lashes—to be delivered in front of her classmates—for bringing a cell phone to school—what do they believe they are doing? For this is as far from protection as you can get, I think. In fact, it’s the opposite: it’s a form of rape; it exposes women and little girls to shame for the accident of being female, and renders them powerless to shield themselves from the disgust, and the disgusting judgement, of the men who control their lives. World Threats
 A 13-year-old girl has been sentenced to 90 lashes and two months' prison in Saudi Arabia after she took a mobile phone to school.A court ordered the girl to be flogged in front of her classmates following an assault on the school principal, according to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan.
After the assault she was discovered to have concealed a mobile phone, breaking strict Saudi regulations banning the use of camera-equipped phones in girls' schools.
Brutal: public floggings, such as in this archive picture, are a common punishment handed down by religious courts in Saudi Arabia Al-Watan said a court in the northeastern Gulf port of Jubail had sentenced the girl to 90 lashes inside her school, followed by two months' detention.
The punishment is harsher than that dished out to some robbers and looters.
Saudi Arabia, a leading US ally in the Middle East, is an absolute monarchy controlled by the Al-Saud ruling tribe, and lacks any legal code.
Absolute monarchy: King Abdullah, ruler of the oil-rich state, meeting Gordon Brown on a 2007 visit to Downing Street King Abdullah has promoted some social reforms since taking the throne in 2005 but diplomats say he is held back by religious clerics and princes.
Cinemas and music concerts are banned, while many restaurants and even some shopping centres cater to families only, especially on holidays.
Religious police roam streets to make sure no unrelated men and women mix.
The Saudi court system is exclusively controlled Wahahbi/Salafi clerics, and bans the employment of non-Salafi citizens, especially as judges.
Saudi Arabia is the world's leading country in the use of torture-by-flogging, public beheadings and publically crucifying condemned prisoners.
The country crucified two people in 2009, including one in the capital Riyadh during President Barak Obama’s visit last April.
In September, twenty Saudi teenagers who ransacked shops and restaurants were publicly flogged.
Newspapers reported that the teenagers received at least 30 lashes each in a public square. Most of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks in 2001 came from Saudi Arabia. Mail Online
 A hadith regarding stoning: "'Umar said, 'I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, "We do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book," and consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. Lo! I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession.' Sufyan added, 'I have memorized this narration in this way.' 'Umar added, 'Surely Allah's Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him.'" -- Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 82, Number 816 Sharia Alert: "Pictured: Islamic militants stone man to death for adultery in Somalia as villagers are forced to watch," from the Daily Mail, December 14 (thanks to all who sent this in): This barbaric scene belongs in the Dark Ages, but pictures emerged today of a group of Islamic militants who forced villagers to watch as they stoned a man to death for adultery. Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim, a 48-year-old, was buried in a hole up to his chest and pelted with rocks until he died. The group responsible, Hizbul Islam, also shot dead a man they claimed was a murderer. Moments before his execution, his hands still free, Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim is buried in the ground. But the verdict was so shocking that it prompted a gun battle between rivals within the group that left three militants dead, witnesses said. The executions took place yesterday in Afgoye, some 20 miles south-west of the capital of Mogadishu. Hizbul Islam fighters ordered hundreds of residents to a field, where a rebel judge announced that the two men had confessed to murder and adultery. A woman who had confessed to fornication had been sentenced to 100 lashes, he added. 'This is their day of justice,' the judge, Osman Siidow Hasan, told the crowd. 'We investigated and they confessed.' But when some Hizbul Islam fighters wanted to delay the executions, a bloody gun battle broke out between the two factions, shocked residents said. 'Three Hizbul Islam fighters died and five others were injured after they fought each other," Halima Osman, an Afgoye shopkeeper, told Reuters in Mogadishu by telephone. 'Some wanted to delay the execution while the others insisted. They exchanged fire. The group that was against the execution was overpowered and chased away,' she said. Once the gun battle was over, the militants coldly carried out the verdicts. A relative of the murder victim shot the first as he lay on the floor. 'I could not watch,' local man Ali Gabow told Reuters. 'The lady who had been with the second man was only given 100 lashes because she said she had never married.'... Thanks to JihadWatch 
 HUMAN rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on Saudi Arabia to stay a sentence of 40 lashes handed down against a 75-year-old woman for breaching the kingdom's sex segregation rules. HUMAN rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on Saudi Arabia to stay a sentence of 40 lashes handed down against a 75-year-old woman for breaching the kingdom's sex segregation rules. "The minister of the interior (Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz) is reported to have ordered the immediate detention and flogging of a 75-year-old woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, along with two Saudi Arabian men known only as Fahad and Hadyan," the London-based watchdog said. "The Saudi Arabian authorities must not carry out the imminent flogging and imprisonment of an elderly woman and two younger men." Amnesty said all avenues of appeal had been exhausted in Saudi courts against the trio's March conviction for being in the company of members of the opposite sex who were not close relatives. "We urge the authorities to prevent the imprisonment and flogging of Khamisa, Fahad and Hadyan." Sawadi and Fahad were sentenced to 40 lashes and four months' imprisonment, and Hadyan to 60 lashes and six months' imprisonment, Amnesty said. Sawadi also faces deportation to her native Syria on completion of her prison term. Saudi Arabia enforces a strict version of Islamic sharia law and imposes corporal punishment for a wide variety of offences. News.Com.au
 The current and former United Nations experts responsible for human rights in Somalia have condemned a series of stonings in the war-torn country. Dr Shamsul Bari, an independent expert appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to report on Somalia, expressed concern over a rise in stonings and targeted assassinations of women's rights advocates, journalists and U.N. staff in a meeting with Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. Citing the "deteriorating" human rights situation in the country, Dr Bari called on the interim Somali government to work to end the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" practices. "I strongly condemn these recent executions by stoning," Dr Bari said in a statement. The statement was released after Halima Ibrahim Abdirahman, a 29-year-old married woman, was stoned to death after she allegedly confessed to having had sex with a 20-year-old unmarried man in Eelboon, southern Somalia. The young man, who has not been identified, was sentenced to 100 lashes. That came after a 20-year-old divorced woman accused of sleeping with an older, unmarried man was put in a public square, buried up to her waist and stoned to death in front of a crowd of 200 earlier this month in the town of Wajid, Somalia. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes. Abdirahman Hussein Abbas, a 33-year-old man accused of adultery, was stoned to death earlier this month in Merka, a port town south of Mogadishu. His girlfriend is set to face the same fate after giving birth to their child. Large parts of Somalia are controlled by a group of Islamic militants loosely working together to overthrow the country's Transitional Federal Government under the banner of the 'Al Shabaab' movement. Under Al Shabaab's interpretation of Sharia, Islamic law, crimes such as theft and adultery are punishable by floggings, amputation, torture or death. Al Shabaab considers any person to have ever been married - including a divorcee - to be forbidden from having further relations. The punishment is often death by public stoning. Al Shabaab executions first made international news a year ago when Amnesty International accused the Islamist group of stoning a 13-year-old rape victim to death in the southern city of Kismayo after she was accused of adultery. Al Shabaab claimed the girl was older and had been married. Bashir Goth, a Somali analyst and the former editor of Awdal News, said Somalis are shocked by the lack of international interest in the actions of Al-Shabaab. More at All Headline News
 PARIS - She managed to leave Sudan hidden beneath a niqab. The journalist who was put in jail in her country, Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, for dearing to wear "indecent" pants arrived in Paris with a "courageousness that is important for Arab and African women", underlined French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, who received her on the eve of the World Day against Violence Against Women.
"The article of the penal code, which according to the judges that sentenced me, bans women from wearing pants does not exist, it exists only in their heads," underlined the journalist who was put in jail in July together with other women who were wearing pants. Since they pled guilty, the women were whipped as punishment. Lubna refused and ended up in jail.
She was released from jail on parole and in the meantime wrote a book, "40 coups de fouet pour un pantalon" (40 lashes for a pair of pants) published by Plon, which will presented tomorrow morning to Cape, the foreign press association in Paris, for the initiative of the Arab press club and the association for the defence of women, Ni Putes Ni Soumises (neither whores nor subjects).
In the book, in addition to telling her story, Lubna writes about the condition of women in her country where sharia law is applied.
 A Somali woman has been stoned to death for committing what a judge has said was adultery. The 20-year-old divorcee was executed on Tuesday after confessing to having had sex with a 29-year-old unmarried man. Sheikh Ibrahim Abdirahman, the judge for a court created by the rebel group al-Shabab, says the woman was killed in front of a crowd of some 200 people near the town of Wajid. The woman, who gave birth to a stillborn child, was buried up to her waist before the stoning took place. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes for having the affair. The woman's death is the second recorded stoning for adultery carried out by al-Shabab fighters, who are confronting the government and control large parts of Somalia. Al-Shabab are proponents of stoning as a punishment under their interpretation of sharia (Islamic law). Mohamed Abdullahi, an East Africa analyst, told Al Jazeera that Islamic law can only be conducted where there is proper jurisdiction in place - not in a lawless failed state like Somalia today. "The position of the majority of Somalis is that these courts should not be held at all," he said. "What they are doing is atrocious and un-Islamic, as they don't have at the moment the right investigative judicial setup necessary for such a verdict, in which capital punishment can be brought forward. "You must have a legal system, a witness system, peace and this is the view of the Somali ulema (legal scholars), the muftis (Islamic law interpreters), that no such verdicts can be conducted in Somalia at the moment." One man was stoned to death for adultery last week. His pregnant girlfriend is due to be given the same punishment in the next few months after she gives birth. In November 2008, a 13-year-old rape victim was stoned to death after being accused of adultery, according to Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group. Al Jazeera
 A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes. Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment.
The charges against her included involvement in the preparation of the program and advertising the segment on the Internet. Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and Information, told The Associated Press he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it. In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes. The man's lawyer, Sulaiman al-Jumeii, maintains his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded. On Saturday, he told the AP that not trying his client or al-Yami before a court specialized in media matters at the Ministry of Culture and Information was a violation of Saudi law. "It is a precedent to try a journalist before a summary court for an issue that concerns the nature of his job," he said. The case has scandalized this ultraconservative country where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly segregated. The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad, who works for the national airline. Three other men who appeared on the show, "Bold Red Line," were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each. Source: YNet
 From Reuters, via iol.co.za: Two Sudanese women were on Thursday sentenced to 20 lashes and fined for committing an act of indecency by wearing trousers, weeks after a similar case sparked worldwide controversy.
The two women were arrested at the same party as Lubna Hussein, a former journalist who was also charged with wearing trousers and publicised her case as part of a campaign against Sudan's public order laws, Hussein told Reuters.
Judge Hassan Mohamed Ali sentenced each woman to 20 lashes and a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds in Khartoum East court on Thursday afternoon.
The women's supporters told journalists the punishment, often carried out immediately after a conviction, was postponed after the women launched an appeal.
Hussein, who was at the court on Thursday said the latest sentencing showed her campaign still had a long way to go.
"The campaign has succeeded in showing the world that there are unfair laws against women in Sudan. But we will keep on fighting," she said.
The two women, one aged 25, the other 27, both of them Muslim, would not give their names to journalists.
Lawyers and supporters at the trial also said they would not release the names as the women came from conservative families.
Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan, where there is a cultural gap between the mostly Muslim north and the south, dominated by Christians and followers of traditional beliefs.
Many women activists complain Sudan's public order regulations are vague and give individual police officers undue latitude to determine what is decent clothing for women.
Hussein was arrested by Sudan's public order police at a Khartoum party in July with 12 other women, 10 of whom pleaded guilty to similar charges and were flogged, she has said.
Hussein was jailed in September after refusing to pay a fine for the same offence but released after a day in prison after the country's journalists' union came up with the payment.
 Couldn't she just have put him on her blocked list? Isn't a sentence of 70 lashes rather severe in this case? Maybe, but it is not out of sync with the draconian character of Sharia in general. Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "181 love messages = 70 flogs," by Abdullah Bajubair for Al-Eqtisadiah via Arab News, October 13 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): [...] We have a story in which all of these synonyms have been used by a man expressing his love to his wife after she left, deserted or abandoned him by khula (a form of divorce in Shariah where the woman secures her divorce through financial compensation to the husband). The Kingdom's newspapers recently reported that the husband agreed to the khula, something that makes us believe that it was the wife who wanted to separate. The husband, agonized by love, sent his ex-wife 181 text messages requesting her to come back. The woman refused all these messages, which were enough to fill a book on love and which would immediately become a bestseller. While he was bombarding his ex-wife with love messages, relatives and friends tried to reconcile them but the woman turned a deaf ear. Not only that, she took her ex-husband to court for annoying her with too many love messages. The judge at the summary court in Buraidah sentenced him to 70 lashes and prevented him from ever approaching her again. The Court of Cassation then approved the verdict making it final.... Source: JihadWatch
 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi court on Wednesday convicted a man for publicly talking about sex after he bragged on a TV talk show about his exploits, sentencing him to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes, his lawyer said. Talking about sex publicly is a taboo in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia. Lawyer Sulaiman al-Jumeii said he plans to appeal the court's ruling and is confident the sentence against his client, which includes a ban on travel and talking to the media for five years after his release, will be revoked. Al-Jumeii maintains that his client, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, was duped by the Lebanese LBC satellite channel which aired the talk show and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded. "I hope you will not consider the case closed," the lawyer said. "I will continue pursuing the TV channel, even if no one stands by me, until it gets the punishment it deserves." The program, which aired July 15 on LBC and was seen in Saudi Arabia, scandalized this conservative country where such frank talk is rarely heard in public. Some 200 people filed legal complaints against Abdul Jawad, who works for the national airline. The program, "Bold Red Line," begins with Abdul-Jawad, dubbed a "sex braggart" and "Casanova" by the media, describing the first time he had sex at 14.
He then leads viewers into his bedroom, dominated by red accessories, and then shows off blurred sex toys. He is later joined by three male friends for a discussion on what turns them on. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 Kareem Shaheen Abu Dhabi: A Moroccan woman who was charged with having premarital sex with an Emirati man retracted her guilty plea yesterday after being told she would receive 100 lashes and a prison sentence.
The woman, identified as SM, and the man, KK, were charged with the same offence in the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance.
KK denied the charge and said a description of his home SM provided to prosecutors was flawed and therefore undermined the evidence against him. Under Sharia law, a conviction for premarital sex that has been denied requires four reliable witnesses to testify to the offence. But in pleading guilty, SM automatically made herself eligible for the mandatory punishment for the crime of 100 lashes. In Abu Dhabi, offenders may receive prison time in addition to lashes. After she entered her plea, Judge Syed Abdul Baseer explained the punishment and asked SM whether she wanted to reconsider. “The punishment is lashing and jail,” Judge Abdul Baseer told her. “You have the right to deny.” “I’ll get the verdict and he leaves?” SM asked, referring to her co-defendant. “Choose as you wish,” Judge Abdul Baseer said.
SM then retracted her guilty plea. Judge Abdul Baseer said he would issue a verdict on October 11.
KK and SM both attended the hearing but were not represented by lawyers. Their ages were not released. In July, a divorced Saudi woman who had been charged with adultery, which is considered a more serious crime than premarital sex, retracted her guilty plea in an Abu Dhabi court to avoid a sentence of death by stoning. Although the woman was divorced, she would still have been eligible for the capital punishment.
She was later sentenced to one year in prison after the charges of adultery and justification of sin – claiming that a sin is acceptable – were reduced to consensual dishonour. Source: National Newspaper H/T: WomenAgainstSharia
By Nicole Rose
verse 1
two hundred lashes for the victim of a gang rape
and all because she tried to stand up for herself
six months in prison for the victim of a gang rape
aren’t you afraid that God will send you down to hell.
where is compassion in this merciful religion
or was your heart cut out when you were just a child
I know you think that Allah smiles on your religion
how can that be, when your men, act like they’re wild
chorus
it’s not about morality it’s not about religion
it’s about power and control
don’t you see your fear is making you into a monster
why don’t you just learn to let it go
verse 2
what are you afraid of that you must enslave your women
how come you’re thinking that you even have the right
you even feel that you must punish her defenders
what’s it gonna take for you to see the light
what makes you think that you must squash all opposition
what’s in their way of thought that makes you so afraid
where is your empathy for what this girl has suffered
she is the victim and she has been betrayed
chorus
it’s not about morality it’s not about religion
it’s about power and control
don’t you see your fear is making you into a monster
why don’t you just learn to let it go
bridge
(a girls voice talking)
All i wanted was fair treatment and some empathy
and that justice could for once be on my side
What i got was symptomatic of society
Male domination of my female pride
State sponsored slavery and masculine supremacy
Why do you hate me that you must have such control
What threat am i that i can’t have equal treatment
lift this veil cause it’s smothering my soul
chorus
it’s not about morality it’s not about religion
it’s about power and control
don’t you see your fear is making you into a monster
why don’t you just learn to let it go ©nicole rose Download this song at CD Baby
 A Sudanese woman who was imprisoned for wearing trousers deemed "indecent" has been released after the country's journalist union paid a $200 fine on her behalf. Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who had been found guilty of flouting the country's decency laws, said after being released on Tuesday that the fine had been paid without her permission. "I am not happy. I told all my friends and family not to pay the fine," she said. A Khartoum court on Monday ordered al-Hussein to pay a fine or face a month in jail, but she was spared a possible penalty of 40 lashes. Al-Hussein refused to pay, preferring to go to jail as a means of challenging Sudan's public order act. Al-Hussein, a former reporter working for the United Nations at the time of her arrest, said she believed there had been political pressure to free her and bring an end to the case, which has brought attention from media and rights organisations worldwide. Mohieddin Titawi, the chairman of the journalists' union, said his group had paid the fine because it had a responsibility to "protect journalists when they are in prison". Al-Hussein was arrested during a raid at a restaurant in Khartoum in July for wearing a pair of green slacks which she later wore in the court hearings. Ten other women arrested along with al-Hussein have already been whipped for their offence. Al-Hussein and two others decided to appeal in protest of Article 152 of the Sudanese penal code, which decrees up to 40 lashes for anyone "who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing". Al-Hussein has said her clothes were respectable and that she did not break the law. She has also said Article 152 "is both against the constitution and sharia [Islamic law]" and that nothing in the Quran says that women should be flogged over what they wear. Last year nearly 43,000 women were detained for indecent clothing offences in Khartoum region, according to al-Hussein's supporters. Women's groups have complained that the law gives no clear definition of indecent dress, leaving the decision of whether to arrest a woman up to individual police officers. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 By Liz Hazelton | 11th February 2009
A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.
The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.
He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.
A judge in the Saudi city of Jeddah ruled that the woman was guilty of adultery and should be jailed for a year
She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.
According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah.
He ruled she had committed adultery - despite not even being married - and handed down a year's prison sentence, which she will serve in a prison just outside the city.
She is still pregnant and will be flogged once she has had the child.
The Saudi Arabian legal system practices a strict form of medieval law. Women have very few rights and are not even allowed to drive.
They are also banned from going out in public in the company of men other than male relatives. Source: Daily Mail H/T: Dhimmi Watch
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Rachel Abrams has a powerful blog post that I wanted to reprint here.
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