# A Question About People Who Recieve 200 Lashes as Punishment in Saudi Arabia **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-people-who-recieve-200-lashes-as-punishment-in-saudi-arabia/426697 "2007-11-16T16:00:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-people-who-recieve-200-lashes-as-punishment-in-saudi-arabia/426697/1 "2007-11-16T16:00:54Z")
So, [this happened.](http://news.aol.com/story/_a/saudi-court-sentences-rape-victim/20071116093109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001) Someone should probably start a Pit thread or something. I will leave that necessary task to others more able than I. I also have a question. How is such a punishment administered? Mostly, I’m wondering whether they do it all at once, or break it up, or what? 200 all at once would likely kill someone, wouldn’t it? Also, is it public or private? And so on. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-people-who-recieve-200-lashes-as-punishment-in-saudi-arabia/426697/2 "2007-11-16T16:05:32Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] So, [this happened.](http://news.aol.com/story/_a/saudi-court-sentences-rape-victim/20071116093109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001) Someone should probably start a Pit thread or something. I will leave that necessary task to others more able than I. [/QUOTE] You mean [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=444315), started some 12 hours before your post? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-people-who-recieve-200-lashes-as-punishment-in-saudi-arabia/426697/3 "2007-11-16T22:07:19Z")
Historically, beatings of far more than 200 lashes were the norm in many places for convicts and slaves. I can’t off the top of my head give a good source for contemporary writing on slave beatings - there has to be a huge literature on this these days - but something that has stayed with me ever since I read it is Robert Hughes epic history of the founding of Australia, [The Fatal Shore](http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Shore-Robert-Hughes/dp/0099448548/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195250427&sr=8-4). He talks of endless whippings of 500, even 1000 strokes, that went on so long that the victim had to be brought back for a second day. Both men and women were whipped this way. All the other convicts had to watch it in its entirety. (Same with slaves. It was supposed to be a deterrent. Convicts were often whipped in public in a variety of countries and historical settings, though. It was great entertainment.) Surprisingly few people died of these whippings. In fact, they were supposed to go back to work right after. The brutality of the past continues to surprise us today. “Cruel and unusual” punishments were not at all unusual, and not felt - by those who dealt them out - to be cruel. Nothing we can imagine anybody in any country doing today is likely to match what was the absolute everyday norm in England in the 18th century. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-people-who-recieve-200-lashes-as-punishment-in-saudi-arabia/426697/4 "2007-11-16T22:41:33Z")
I have read in an article on the practice that, in the case of large sentences (meaning many strokes of the lash), it is done over several days. The article I read has guidelines on how many per day, but I don’t remember the numbers and I don’t have the article in front of me. My friend google told me this: The case of two men convicted for 7000 lashes for homosexual acts [http://www.gbmnews.com/articles/1626/1/Saudi-Arabia-7000-lashes-for-being-gay/Page1.html](http://www.gbmnews.com/articles/1626/1/Saudi-Arabia-7000-lashes-for-being-gay/Page1.html) “The floggings began on Tuesday. The men were dragged into the square, their shirts removed and they where whipped. They were then returned to prison. The process was repeated on Wednesday and will continue daily until all 7,000 lashes have been administered.” And, if you’re interested, from a State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Saudi Arabia (2005) > **[We apologize for the inconvenience... - United States Department of State](https://www.state.gov/404)** > > The page you’re looking for may have gone offline or does not exist. Please use our search, browse further via our navigation, or return to the home page. You may also visit our Archive page for more information. Still can’t find it? Send us a... “According to press reports, lashes were generally administered with a thin reed by a man who must hold a book under his arm to prevent him from lifting the arm too high. The strokes, delivered through a thin shirt, are not supposed to leave permanent damage, but to leave painful welts that bleed and bruise.”