What do we have to do to cut ties with these people? Saudi court sentences 75-year-old woman to lashes By MAGGIE MICHAEL ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER CAIRO -- A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary. The woman's lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that he would appeal the verdict against Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi. The attorney, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said the verdict issued March 3 also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her sentence. He said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media, and he declined to provide more details about the case. The newspaper Al-Watan said the woman met with the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread at her home in al-Chamil, a city north of the capital, Riyadh. Al-Watan identified one man as Fahd al-Anzi, the nephew of Sawadi's late husband, and the other as his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein. It said they were arrested by the religious police after delivering the bread. The men also were convicted and sentenced to lashes and prison. The court said it based its ruling on "citizen information" and testimony from al-Anzi's father, who accused Sawadi of corruption. "Because she said she doesn't have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed," the court verdict read. Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling. It also bars women from driving, and the playing of music, dancing and many movies also are a concern for hard-liners who believe they violate religious and moral values. Complaints from Saudis have been growing that the religious police and courts are overstepping their broad mandate and interfering in people's lives, and critics lambasted the handling of Sawadi's case. "How can a verdict be issued based on suspicion?" Laila Ahmed al-Ahdab, a physician who also is a columnist for Al-Watan, wrote Monday. "A group of people are misusing religion to serve their own interests." Sawadi told the court she considered al-Anzi as her son, because she breast-fed him when he was a baby. But the court denied her claim, saying she didn't provide evidence. In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers. Sawadi commonly asked her neighbors for help after her husband died, said journalist Bandar al-Ammar, who reported the story for Al-Watan. In a recent article, he wrote that he felt the need to report the case "so everybody knows to what degree we have reached." The woman's conviction came a few weeks after King Abdullah fired the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing owners of TV networks that broadcast "immoral content." The move was seen as part of an effort to weaken the hard-line Sunni Muslim establishment.
this is disgusting and completely distorts the image of us muslims all over the world.. I freaking HATE Saudi Arabia's system, and I don't understand why the U.S continues to be best friends with Saudi Arabia and yet call out other WAAAY more centrist open minded arab/muslim nations (see: Syria) .. I guess $$$$ is what it's all about..
Are you kidding? We support them because they give us oil under as favorable of conditions as we can get.
Horse****. I don't knowingly cultivate personal business relationships with scumbags, so why should I accept that my country does. "If you dance with the devil, the devil don't change. The devil changes you."
I don't know why we don't get with the rest of the world powers and just take over the oil fields and give their people a comfortable life from the profits. Screw the Kingdom.... DD
Probably because they would "welcome us as liberators" just as in Iraq, but more so. It would be the ultimate expression of the phrase, "we had to destroy the village to save it".
Oh, so this is not what's going on? Sweet. Anyways, I don't know what culture has to do with the laws of a country. The laws are messed up. There is nothing of culture here. Why tarnish the culture? It's a poor ruling. It happens in America and it happens in Saudi Arabia. The only cultural thing is the way we VIEW what happened. In American culture, what happened is outside the realm of possibility whereas in Saudi culture, this is something that shouldn't have happened. By the same token, legalizing gay marriage (for example) is outside the real of possibility through Saudi eyes, whereas it's something that's controversial for a large number of Americans. Leave them alone. They are not taking any hostages. They are selling you the oil, regulating the price of it for you, and depositing the money in U.S. banks. How do their views infringe on your freedom?
Saudi regime wouldn't last too long if there wasn't US support for this family dictatorship. Their own people hate them and the US for supporting a regime that brutally oppresses them.
So why not call, Russia, China, the UK and other powers and say...here is what we are going to do for the good of the world. Take over the oil fields, and pay their people profits from it....let them keep the country....but the oil belongs to the world. Distribute the profits more evenly to the people, screw the Sheiks and Opec....and help their people. DD
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The Saudi Royal family has enough money to live in comfort the rest of their lives...give more to the people of that country....they are the ones in need. The fricken culture and BS Koran based law system is archaic, and should be quashed by civilized countries..... This whole stone age religion crap needs to stop. DD
With all due respect, I don't think you know the definition of "culture". The laws of their society are the best indicator of a culture, in my opinion. A 75 year old woman asks her nephew to bring her a loaf of bread, and they now sentence her to a beating that could kill her? By the way, leaving them alone is not an option. The Saudi Royal family is the root of most terrorism problems, and Bush's compromises with them to keep the oil flowing is the biggest failure of the Bush administration (in my opinion).
Totally agree....the Saudi royal family is a huge problem...and it is a stopper for most of their people in getting a decent quality of life. DD
Even if the laws are derived from their religious doctrines, the punishment of assigning lashes to a 75-year old woman is a reflection on their culture. Turning a blind eye to that because they are giving us cheap oil and not taking hostages is pathetic. Not say say that Americans (particularly Texans) can universally take the high ground on the appropriateness of corporal punishment considering we execute teenagers and mentally r****ded people for crimes without much remorse.
