Sawsan Salim in jail

Finally THIS is getting some attention! I’ve learned that the judge that was sentenced to half what the woman was sentenced to was actually the person writing the complaints for her. And yet he only got half of her punishment because she’s also convicted of going into a government building without a male guardian.

It’s being reported in Business Week and the Australian Herald Sun. It would be great if we could get enough international pressure to get her case revised.

23 Comments

Filed under Injustice

23 responses to “Sawsan Salim in jail

  1. Mila Novich

    How disgusting, I hope this poor woman get’s justice. So typical of a back ward society of Saudi. These poor women are treated like animals. I’m so glad that my daughters have the freedom to sensibly come and go. As for the so called Saudi Government you bring shame to your country every time you treat you women like dogs. Shame on you and the back ward way you think.
    I hope some day Women will rule and have the same punishment for you male pigs!

  2. Countrygirl

    Scary but I’m wondering how it’s possible that almost none say anything regarding this total lack of human rights? I mean I reckon that now in Saudi there’s a part of population that has studied, travelled abroad why their voice isn’t heard…I know for me a western woman Saudi is an alien world but some basic human rights should be shared by the whole world

  3. Susan Fauss

    Saudi and Muslim men want power. This is not a religious issue. It is a power issue. Their lives are simplified when they do not have to consider women as more than property. This treatment of women is unacceptable in any civilization. God did not make one brain to waste. I pray that the women of Saudi will someday be able to speak out.
    For their daughters.

    • M. Abdulrahman

      Hi Susan,

      You shouldn’t take a broad view of what Saudi or Muslim men want. I’m a Swedish Muslim man. You shouldn’t express yourself just like the way of the people you are writing about expressed themselves.

      Thanks

  4. Laura S.

    Your blog is making news in the United States. Thanks for informing us of what is happening there. I now realize that as a woman, I take for granted the freedoms that I have in my country. Keep sharing and speaking out. It will make a difference!

  5. Jean Shaffer

    The women of Saudi need to keep pushing for equal rights. Saudi men who feel the need to have total domination over women are insecure. Hopefully the younger generation of men will step up and treat women with more respect and dignity. The old regime and their mindset needs to go. Ignorance is no excuse for their actions. They can bury their heads in religion all they want but the days of pyramids and pharaohs are long gone.

    • M. Yousif

      hi everyone!!
      1st of all such news is incorrect & hasn’t happened in our saudi Muslim courts!! They’ve never been treated as dogs!! nor inhumane!! (ignorant fools!)
      As far as Muslim Saudi women rights is concern, the Faith of Islam ordains equlity between men and women before the law and in all civil rights. This applies to unmarried girls and to married women. The laws of marriage in Islam, as an example, differ from the laws of Christianity in the Western World by preserving the Muslim woman’s right to retain her surname after marriage. Her marriage does not cancel her civil rights or her capacity to participate in legal contracts or her right to possess property or wealth. A Muslim woman retains her family’s name after marriage in addition to being entitled to all the civil rights due to men. She owns property in her own name and her wealth belongs to her alone and cannot be appropriated by her husband. Most civilized modern democracies have not yet attained this elevated status of equality. In France, until recently, a French woman had no civil rights, since the French law denied her these rights. This is stated in the 217th clause of the French Civil Law “A married woman, even if her marriage is based upon the separation of her property from her husband’s property, does not have the legal right to endow or dispose of her property or mortgage or exchange her property without her husband’s written consent and participation in the contract??!!
      The Faith of Islam does not discriminate between men and women except in matters when this discrimination is due to the nature of their ***, for their welfare and for the welfare of the community, the family and in particular for the welfare of women.

      There are five issues where discrimination between men and women is ordained by Islam, namely : financial responsibilities, inheritance, the custodianship of the family, testimony and divorce.

      During the next stage of a woman’s life, namely during her marriage, the Faith of Islam charges the husband with the responsibility of supporting his wife and family and does not charge the wife with any financial responsibilities. Nevertheless, Islam preserves all the Muslim woman’s civil rights which include her right to possess and dispose of her wealth and property without any intervention from her husband. A wife is not obliged to participate in the financial support of her family even if she is wealthy enough to do so, for supporting the family is the sole responsibility of her husband, this being his religious and legal duty.

      In the event of divorce, the husband is also charged by Islam with all the expenses that ensue. He is charged with paying the dowry agreed upon in the event of divorce, in addition to his divorced wife’s financial support which includes her housing, food expenses and, apparel in addition to the children’s expenses which include the wages of their wet nurses who breast feed them, their clothes and their education. The Muslim woman, on the other hand, is not charged with spending a single penny on herself or on her children.

      It is obvious from the aforementioned, Islamic rulings that Islam has raised the status of the Muslim woman and has preserved her dignity in her father’s home before marriage, in her own home during her marriage, and even in the event of her divorce. This status has not been attained by any other religion in the past or in the modern world of to day.

      • Usman

        Dude!
        Issue is not Islam. The Issue is unique Saudi culture which brings oppression against women and in fact against every citizen. Fore example, prohibition of women drivers, wearing veil, need of mahram in daily life have absolutely nothing to do with Islam. It is something Saudi folks invented out of nothing.

      • Sona

        Thanks alot
        يسلم اثمك

  6. Fred M.

    I live in Canada and read you blog, great job getting the word out, you are a hero and should be very proud of yourself.

  7. Vince

    This is the price of the lie. No freedom. No justice.
    No respect. No compassion. No love. However, the “True God” has placed these virtues in the hearts of His creation. Listen to your own heart. The”True God” will hear your plea and show you the Way.

  8. Countrygirl–interesting, and from a relatively conservative French newspaper. Thanks.

  9. dave

    Sorry after commenting on the other post, I see you have already written here about the woman getting twice the punishment as the man. But I still feel the same thing I said about that women are punished harshly in saudi, and often for something they are a victim of and not a criminal or in control of the actions. And men get less hard punishments or often no punishments at all. And it seems like women have less value than men to the saudi judiciary and authorities and people, and so they can be treated like an animal or something owned, to be disciplined without being considered as human with human dignity. And by the way lashes for a woman is very undignified, and how can they make all these unequal strict rules about women’s lives in saudi arabia which are thought to be to protect women’s dignity, and yet they support unequal punishments of men and women and lower value of women, which is undignified. And they give lashes to women to take away their dignity, so how can they do this to some women if they say they care about women’s dignity? Does humiliating a women’s dignity make the supposed indignity of her crime cleaned or neutralised? Or does it just make even more indignity on a woman who probably has already suffered indignity from how other people treat her before?

  10. Jessica

    Spoke to a girl who got lashes, its not what its made out to be.

    A) no male is present during the punishment

    b) depending on the age and person they spread the lashes out so its not all at once

    c) when they sentence to 300 it means 30

    d) the girl I know was sentenced to 200 lashes for breaking a certain clothing rule, she said it was a friday early AM and her and about 15 other girls who all where already in jail where taken to a certain section in the prison, there was 2 females administering the lashes, and others to assist as they give a final count etc.

    each was made to lay down on like a bench, they do not tie you down as many say, she said she was fully covered and it was painful and left marks for a few weeks, she did say a few girls who got lashed where told to strip naked and lay down , mostly those where drug violations, the lashes are mostly on butt and some on upper back.

    its all about humiliating more then pain, she said one girl cursed and the judge was there and took her aside and gave put her over her knees and really spanked her hard.

    • Usman

      Flogging as punishment for any crime other than Zina/rape has no justification whatsoever.

    • bart deceuninck

      1) What do you mean with: when they say 300 it’s thirty?
      2) You say no man was present and the judge was there and spanked the girl?
      3) It’s about humiliation, but you still see the marks after 2 weeks, what with the naked girls then? I thought the whip could not be raised higher than the armpit; although when you see pictures of whipping, the whip is up in the air
      4) Is it not haram to flog a woman naked? I thought that was absolutely not allowed
      5) If she was sentenced to 200 lashes and she was flogged only 1 time, how did they spread it out then?
      There’s a lot I don’t understand. Don’t downplay such a barbaric punishment and please be more accurate when you write something

  11. Jessica

    1) What do you mean with: when they say 300 it’s thirty?

    Like in the usa sometimes they say someone will serve a year but in reality he only does 8 months, 300 is the max and the final number is given at the time when they are to get lashed

    2) You say no man was present and the judge was there and spanked the girl?

    female judges are common since Taghreed Hikmat was made judge in 1996, she really did an amazing thing and now many women are judges.

    3) It’s about humiliation, but you still see the marks after 2 weeks, what with the naked girls then? I thought the whip could not be raised higher than the armpit; although when you see pictures of whipping, the whip is up in the air

    You are mixing up caning in Malaysia and lashes, I got my info from a girl who went thru this or so she claims,

    4) Is it not haram to flog a woman naked? I thought that was absolutely not allowed

    I know, and most wont admit if they got lashed naked out of shame, some of the women judges are very upset when 20 year old girls break laws, laugh in court and they know that light lashes will be a big joke

    5) If she was sentenced to 200 lashes and she was flogged only 1 time, how did they spread it out then?

    she got way more then that, she makes fun of everything thats why I dont even know if I can trust her with this story, but shes very rude so I can see someone who was to lash really give it to her

    There’s a lot I don’t understand. Don’t downplay such a barbaric punishment and please be more accurate when you write something

    I dont downplay anything, it is what it is, maybe the whole lashing thing never happens as there are few accounts images and so on, I do know in saudi there is less crime per capita and know women there behave better then anywhere else i been,

    here is a photo a female took on a camera phone this was not in saudi thou i do not know where it was as she wont tell me, she did lots of travel

    lashes
    • I’m sorry to inform you that from your first comment everything you wrote is not true. I’m a Saudi and I know what I’m talking about. Taghreed Hikmat is Jordanian. We have no women lawyers, how can we have women judges? Sawsan Salim got punished for going to the courts unchaperoned! How can a woman be a judge? would her husband have to accompany her all day, every day. And 300 lashes is 300 lashes, no discounts. Women are lashed fully clothed ALWAYS. And women behave better here because they are oppressed, they have no choice but to behave.

  12. Malki

    Jessica is right and is also wrong, some countries have very interesting ways of carrying out the lashes, saudi is not harsh compared to others, the nude lashing while tied to a bench is really whats going on in some places, females giving the lashes sometimes are real harsh, one girl while interviewed as can be seen on youtube talks about not being able to sit for 2 weeks.

    Many saw the video on the public lashing that took place in afgan (available on youtube), what goes on or what use to go on behind close doors was horror.

    I feel having a women stand in public with a sign saying I cheated on my husband, will be just as effective as anything else.

  13. Pingback: News Of The Lash » Blog Archive » Saudi lashings – the inside story

  14. JOE DIAZ

    MUSLIM WOMEN NEED TO START KILLING MEN TO MAKE THINGS CHANGE.IF HE HITS YOU YOU KILL HIM.VERY SIMPLE

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