King’s pardon of rape victim in Saudi Arabia unimpressive
“Because of the barbaric crime committed against the woman, and because erring in pardon is better than erring in punishment ... we have decided to pardon her.”
So said a royal decree issued by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in the case of the “Girl of Qatif,” who was sentenced to a six-month prison term and 200 lashes after she was gang-raped by seven men.
The girl, who has not been publicly identified, was charged with being alone in a car with a man not related to her. In fact, she had met the man, who was a friend, to retrieve a photograph of herself because she had got married.
The friend was also raped.
The words “erring in pardon” in the royal decree show that Saudi Arabia remains in the dark ages when it comes to the equal treatment of men and women.
The inequality is clearly reflected in the judicial system that has little regard for human rights and treats women much more harshly than men.
As Fawzeyah al-Oyouni, a human rights activist and retired school administrator in Dhahran, put if after the pardon of the “Girl of Qatif” was announced, “What we need is not pardons. We need justice. We need a judiciary that safeguards citizens rights, not one that abuses them.”
What’s disconcerting about this case is that the girl was victimized not once, but several times. After the rape, she was charged with being with a man not related to her and originally sentenced to 90 lashes.
Sentence increased
But when her lawyer appealed, his license was revoked and her sentence was increased. The judges went so far as to insinuate that she was having an affair with the man, even though her husband has supported her throughout the ordeal.
According to the New York Times, Saudi Arabia’s justice minister, Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Sheik, said the king fully supported the verdicts against the woman, but decided to pardon her because it was in the “interests of the people.”
What about the interest of justice?
The Bush administration was appropriately harsh in its criticism of the sentence and must now keep up the pressure on the Saudi royal family to force changes in the judiciary.
President Bush has made the spread of democracy a centerpiece of his foreign policy, but his campaign is being undermined by so-called friends like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Russia.
None of the leaders of those countries has embraced Bush’s vision of democracy and, in fact, in Pakistan and Russia there has been a definite retreat from that vision.
Saudi Arabia has suffered international scorn for its treatment of the gang-rape victim and there is nothing to suggest that King Abdullah’s pardon will do anything to improve the country’s image.
Given the United States’ long-standing relationship with the Saudi royal family, it’s time for the administration to clearly define what it means by democracy and then work with its non-democratic allies to help them achieve it.
On the alternative, Bush should drop the spread of democracy from his foreign policy agenda. Thus far, no one abroad seems to be paying much attention to him on that score.