Saudi Arabia’s Injustice System

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Alternative Title: Saudi Arabia – Oops I did it again.

Late this past October, Christopher Wilcke had reported in The Guardian Unlimited that any political or social reform that is taking place in Saudi Arabia “has been more cosmetic than real.” Lest anyone believe that this is an unsupported statement, the Higher Judicial Council of Saudi Arabia offers this egregious example of injustice:

A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail . . . The 19 year old woman – whose six armed attackers have been sentenced to jail terms – was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for “being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape.”
But in a new verdict issued after Saudi Arabia’s Higher Judicial Concil ordered a retrial, the court in the eastern town of Al-Qatif more than doubled the number of lashes to 200.

A court source told the English-language Arab News that the judges had decided to punish the woman further for “her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.”

Further, the woman’s lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, appealed the verdict and subsequently lost his license to practice law in Saudi Arabia.
The irony of this situation is that a mere month ago, Saudi King Abdullah announced a complete overhaul of the judicial system that has undergone severe criticism by the Western world:

In a move widely welcomed in Saudi Arabia and abroad, King Abdullah early this month decreed an overhaul of the country’s archaic judicial system and an allocation of $2 bn for building court-houses and training judges. This was immediately hailed by Saudi reformers, businessmen and lawyers as the beginning of a new cycle of reforms repeatedly called for in the kingdom.
Supporters say the changes will reinforce the rule of law, help to avert miscarriages of justice and improve the business environment. They say the reforms do not undermine the centrality of Islamic law to the justice system, but seek to bring order and oversight to a sector in which defendants often lack legal representation and judges have enormous discretion to rule according to their own arbitrary interpretation of uncodified laws.

It seems evident that King Abdullah is doing nothing more than paying casual lip service to the rest of the modern world. Moreover, there is very little difference between Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries that continue to commit serious human rights violations under Muslim culture and leadership.
It is time that we take a hard look at these violations and the serious implications that they have on human rights and society as a whole. It is time that the Western world stand up to Saudi Arabia and force Abdullah to put his money where is mouth is, and effect some serious, real change.