Saudi Arabia: A Woman's Misery in the Merciless Kingdom

Let's see, you're a woman in Saudi Arabia.  How are things going for you?

1.  You can't drive a car.  Ever.

2.  If you walk alone, even in your own neighborhood, you risk being stopped, beaten, and accused of prostitution.

3.  If you want or need to go somewhere in a car, you have to be driven by a male to whom you're related.

4.  You can't be driven anywhere by another woman, because she's also forbidden to drive.

5.   Your husband and other male family members are frequently unavailable to drive you places because, after all, they have jobs.  And when they are home, they're too tired to play chauffeur before and after work, so can't the fresh vegetables wait, and why can't the kids just stay home from school for a day?

6.  If for any reason you allow an unrelated male to drive you anywhere, you risk being stopped, beaten, gang raped, photographed, and threatened by your rapists. 

7.  If you are a victim of such a crime, you will also be treated as a criminal and will be sentenced to 90 lashes for your "crime" of being alone with an unrelated male.

8  If you protest your sentence as unjust, your sentence will be increased to 200 lashes.

9.  If the lawyer who dared to represent you protests publicly, he will be disciplined, removed from your case, and banned from practicing law.

Just another day in the life of a woman in Saudi Arabia.

It's slavery.

You won't see their tears.  They are well hidden behind the robes.  Besides, photographs of individuals in public are still forbidden.

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For optional updates on this post, keep reading below.

Update:

Two comments on the woman's sentencing to 200 lashes that hit home for me (at LGF):

#59

Sharmuta 11/15/07 8:34:55 am

        re: #55 Owl

[Owl:]  I think i'll spend lunch praying.

{Sharmuta:]  Think I'll join you and I'll even kiss the American ground I walk on.

Amen that.

Comments

[Bill in Chicago]

You missed a few spots, like "Women are not admitted to a hospital for medical treatment without the consent of a male relative."

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8296.htm

And how about that old favorite - if you get raped, you better damn well not get pregnant:

"In one case, the Commission was told of a foreign domestic worker who had become pregnant after being raped by her employer. She was subsequently imprisoned because it is illegal for female foreign workers to become pregnant in Saudi Arabia if they are not married."

http://www.uscirf.gov/countries/region/middleast/saudi/saudiReport.pdf

But hey, it's not as if the Saudis are running around the world comitting one terrorist attack after another, murdering American citizens by the thousdands:

http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com

Nevermind.