Post: Girl gets a year in jail, 100 lashes for adultery
Author: Adnan Shabrawi
Posting's URL link: http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009020828735
JEDDAH – A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus.
The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride. The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house, east of Jeddah, where he and four of friends assaulted her all night long.
The girl claimed that she became pregnant soon after and went to King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces in an attempt to carry out an abortion. She was eight weeks’ pregnant then, the hospital confirmed.
According to the ruling, the woman will be sent to a jail outside Jeddah to spend her time and will be lashed after delivery of her baby who will take the mother’s last name.
I have to admit that I did not find this news story on my own. I found it via Rusty Lime.
Site: Rusty Lime
Post: Why We Still Need the Feminist Movement
Author: Laiste
Posting's URL link: http://www.rustylime.com/show_article.php?id=3347
I wanted to start my new blog off with a light-hearted post; but, I keep returning to this post by Laiste at the Rusty Lime. Of course, the topic strikes me because I am a woman; yet, in reality, I pay more attention now because of my role in the community (in education, mental health, and counseling). I could sit here and wish I had started paying attention earlier...
Laiste mentioned that the United States has the highest rape statistics among countries who report such information. I knew the trends within America but, honestly, I had not looked at them in a global sense. I did not realize that U.S. rape occurs 13 times more than in England and 20 times more than in Japan. Instead I focused on the fact that a person is sexually assaulted in the U.S. every 2 minutes. Seventy-three percent of victims know their assailants. What is worst is that ther are resources available to a victim of sexual assault. For example, in my community where I work for the Crisis Line we are able to advocate services to victims 24 hours a day/7 days a week. If someone goes to the emergency room for a rape exam, we will be at the hospital within 20 minutes to help the victim through the experience so that they do not have to go through the experience alone. I can understand the public may not be aware of this but ALL of the emergency rooms (ER) are. We have a terrible time getting the ER's to call us. There are some nights where the Crisis Line phone does not ring.
Now, I have gone on in a different direction than I originally planned. I like what the author, Laiste, wrote. She called the woman's experience for what it really is-rape, and a gang-rape at that. She pulled in appropriate links to support her post. She made intelligent comments. Seriously, why is a woman punished for a gang-rape stating that she, as an unmarried woman, committed adultery? In addition, she had to dig deep within herself and, ultimately, decided to seek an abortion and now will be punished for this soul-searching choice and then forced to have the baby.
I do not even know what part of this story upsets me the most.
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