# Saudi woman punished for... being gang-raped **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 16, 2009, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067 "2009-02-16T08:12:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/81 "2009-02-17T13:00:10Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Its rather amusing that there is _not a single cite_ for this story. Try reading the OP. I’ve heard that it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/82 "2009-02-17T13:22:10Z")
> [@](#): > > **Linty Fresh** said: > I’m no fan of Islam. I think it’s got a lot of unanswered questions, too few of which are even being seriously considered by the Muslims who could make a difference if they wanted to. Still, Islam doesn’t condone this by a long shot. You don’t need religion for rapists to do subhuman bullshit. Religion doesn’t even help them explain it. Whatever their justifications, they were monsters before they were Muslims. What religion does is give this kind of thing traction to the point of bearing the weight of law. Religion allows what would othewise be a gang of rapists who would be arrested, tried, and possibly convicted of their crimes, to become a society in which the force of the law is brought to bear not agaist the rapist, but against the victim. Religion may not create evil, but it has been used as the launch pad for it since religion was invented. It is impossible for me to believe that ‘Islam doesn’t condone this by a long shot,’ since a true believer in any religion can find a justification in their sacred texts for just about any act they have a desire to perform. It is what allows someone to not just be willing to die for their cause, but to believe that dying for their cause is _the intended outcome_. Religion may not make monsters, but it certainly sets them free. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/83 "2009-02-17T14:50:08Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > From what I’ve read a long time ago (sorry, no cite), women are punished for being raped in strict Islamic cultures because they’re making themselves attractive to men and men can’t be held responsible for what they do when attracted to a woman. I have had this discussion with an Evangelical who beleives that if a woman dresses slutty ( IE: not puritanical) that she is asking to be raped. A one sided argument ensued with someone ending in tears because she couldn’t back up anything she said and logic overwhelmed her. It was my sister in law. So, religous nutjobs of the Women-are-asking-to-be-raped mentality are on both sides of the ocean and not wearing burkhas. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/84 "2009-02-17T15:45:30Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > Still, Islam doesn’t condone _this_ by a long shot. You don’t need religion for rapists to do subhuman bullshit. Religion doesn’t even help them explain it. Whatever their justifications, they were monsters before they were Muslims. But Islam apparently does condone it (not the rape, although it looks as though that is being condoned as well). The girl is being punished along the lines of sharia law is she not? We saw with the Danish cartoons what Islam not condoning something looks like. If something is done in the name of Islam and there is not a similar outcry from Muslims, the Islam is condoning it. And the government if Saudi Arabia is a very prominent representative of Islam. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/85 "2009-02-17T15:57:28Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > I have had this discussion with an Evangelical who beleives that if a woman dresses slutty ( IE: not puritanical) that she is asking to be raped. A good retort to that is to ask, “if a business has a ‘Help Wanted’ sign out, does that mean they’re asking to be robbed? Sure there’s money available, but you still have to follow their rules and procedures to get it”. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/86 "2009-02-17T16:36:33Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Obviously she is being jailed on a charge of **Gross Stupidity**. :rolleyes: > > # It’s Saudi Arabia. As a woman, you don’t hitchhike. > > # It’s Saudi Arabia. You don’t try to procure an abortion. > > # It’s Saudi Arabia. You don’t then alert the authorities about the _way_ you got pregnant, noting all of the above. > > # It’s Saudi Arabia. She’s lucky she got away with 100 lashes rather than a death sentence. > > Next question? It’s Saudi Arabia. Get out of there and never look back. Go somewhere else, where the law doesn’t have their heads up their asses. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/87 "2009-02-17T17:09:25Z")
Where? How? Can you bring your family with you? **Butwhat** certainly doesn’t want you at her place. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/88 "2009-02-17T17:16:38Z")
If I’m going to get worked into a frenzy every time some crazy judicial system provides a fucked up verdict to an outrageous court case, I won’t get anything done. I’m going to assume more (or less) is going on here than the news story suggests, and get on with my life. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/89 "2009-02-17T18:11:08Z")
Something about this whole thing stinks, the punishments given in the OP are not the ones that could be awarded in such a situtaion. I am pretty sure that there is more than what meets the eye here. Saudis have a very narrow view of rapists and I would’nt want to be accused of one, in a tribal society that means your head and of anyone in the way. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/90 "2009-02-17T18:23:24Z")
[Related thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10839083#post10839083) in GD. ---
**Author:** ![starryspice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@starryspice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starryspice)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/91 "2009-02-17T22:37:22Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Except for one huge problem, the people of Iran seem to actually prefer their theocracy. Yup, Iranians love their country. You know, except for the flood of people who fled Iran shortly after the Revolution. And the many that continue to leave the country even today. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/92 "2009-02-18T11:46:21Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > It’s Saudi Arabia. Go somewhere else, where the law doesn’t have their heads up their asses. I’m pretty sure that fists, cucumbers or heads - that’s a stonin’. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/93 "2009-02-18T17:16:17Z")
> [@starryspice](#): > > Yup, Iranians love their country. You know, except for the flood of people who fled Iran shortly after the Revolution. And the many that continue to leave the country even today. > :rolleyes: Especially the Baha’is. I’m sure they just _love_ being persecuted and all that. Especially the ones who want to leave but can’t. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/94 "2009-02-18T17:42:52Z")
I am not sure if it is part of their religion ,but Karma does impact the Arabs I know. They have a “you pay for your accumulated sins” approach. If she were raped, she is somewhat responsible due to her accumulated sins and errors. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/95 "2009-02-18T19:07:18Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > [Related thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10839083#post10839083) in GD. I was sure that would be a link to the ‘Women are the niggers of the world’ thread. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/96 "2009-02-18T19:26:52Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Anyone who would assign any blame whatsoever to this woman has a supremely fucked-up perspective, IMO. Evil laws hold no weight, none, except the practical ones which people like this poor woman can’t always avoid; it’s our duty to assess them thusly. Hear hear! ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/97 "2009-02-18T21:31:04Z")
> [@HumanMonkeyGod](#): > > w… what the fuck? Are you fucking serious? jock, these women are born into this. They have NO CHOICE. I understand there are starving people and people in wars and they seriously lack choice too and that’s terrible in its own right, but this is… I really struggle to even try describe how wrong and disgusting this is. Do you think the women in a society like that can maybe save up and buy an airticket out of there? Where to? Do you think they even have the education to know what something exists beyond the desert? Could they even physically just run away? Where can they run too? The desert? The shelter of a neighboring country with similar laws? > And basically saying women there should shutup and “go with the flow”… that’s not a solution. I am fucking serious. She could have walked. In 2009, it is a horrible thing to have to go through and this type of brutality should be in the middle of the ash heap of history. It’s not. We know it. They know it. Certianly Saudi Women know it. The fact is that the world does not spin on the axis of the life of this woman. There are thousands of people being slaughtered as we speak in Darfur. There are, as you mentioned those suffering the pain of war and hunger. This is a moderately civilized society taking its’ draconian laws to a logical conclusion for the sake of what can be construed as morality. I feel badly for the victims of this alleged justice, but if you don’t “go with the flow” your options are, well, limited. Would i rather every place on earth be like the US/UK/Oz etc? Sure. It’s not. The most powerful woman in the world will go to Jakarta soon. How much you wanna wager she wears something covering her head in public? See, the scales tip in favor of the home team, as long as America is not the home team. We don’t require any such thing (as a head covering for women), yet don’t bat an eye when a woman decides to wear a headcovering here. Though if a woman travels to a place that “requires” her head be covered because of fundamentalist religious law, the truth is that “law” fails to recognize the fundamental rights of the woman as a human being to dress as she chooses. This is different from laws designed to protect the populace such as speeding, this is a law based on an ideal based on a religion that, despite it’s “peaceful” description consistently turns out the most violent practicioners in modern history. All that said, I stand by my original statement. It sucks, but it is what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/98 "2009-02-18T21:36:29Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > I am fucking serious. She could have walked. In 2009, it is a horrible thing to have to go through and this type of brutality should be in the middle of the ash heap of history. Okay, but if she walked somewhere alone and gotten raped, couldn’t someone just as easily have said, “She should have been escorted by a man–shouldn’t she have known better?” And if these guys are the gang raping type, I am sure they’re the kind of guy who might have followed her and raped her even if she’d said no to the ride. Considering how much sympathy this society shows rape victims, I really doubt there are any truly safe options for a woman in Saudi Arabia, short of barricading themselves in their homes. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/99 "2009-02-19T01:32:48Z")
> [@HumanMonkeyGod](#): > > I happened to read this in a newspaper but found a [link](http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009020828735) here, although it is somewhat whitewashed. > > cliffs: > > - 23 year old **unmarried** woman accepts a lift in a car > - man takes her to his friend’s house on other side of town, man plus 4 friends rape her (newspaper report said friends raped her, linked story says they “assaulted her all night long”). > - woman falls pregnant, tries to have abortion, apparently doesn’t > - woman “confesses” story to court, judge sentences her to 100 lashes and a year in prison for **adultery**. Lashes to be administered after birth of baby. > > I don’t have anything to say really, other than that this makes me feel ill. And that searching for this story turned out harder than I would’ve thought, because it’s not really an unusual one. I thought it was 2009. What the fuck is going on? > > ☹ Are you fucking twelve? It’s horrific, yes, but It’s a repeat from 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004… ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING that comes out of either a Muslim nation or an African nation will surprise me. A Madagascar witch-hunt over stolen penises? A shape-shifting goat with “Allah” spelled out in its fur? The Health Minister saying that AIDS is caused by witchcraft? Sure, whatever, do we have any Fruit Roll-ups? Joe ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067/100 "2009-02-19T03:39:44Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Okay, but if she walked somewhere alone and gotten raped, couldn’t someone just as easily have said, “She should have been escorted by a man–shouldn’t she have known better?” And if these guys are the gang raping type, I am sure they’re the kind of guy who might have followed her and raped her even if she’d said no to the ride. Considering how much sympathy this society shows rape victims, I really doubt there are any truly safe options for a woman in Saudi Arabia, short of barricading themselves in their homes. Right, she could have, but in THIS CASE, she didn’t and sure as turd follows fart, she was raped. There aren’t safe options for women within the pit of vipers known as Saudi Arabia. But then again, they have to know that. It’s called situational awareness, if you lack it, there’s a chance you could die. It’s a horrible place to be a woman, then again, it’s really none of our business. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saudi-woman-punished-for-being-gang-raped/486067.md?page=6)