On that Saudi rape victim...

The Saudi King finally did the right thing and pardoned that rape victim.

Why she was convicted in the first place remains puzzling to we Westerners but apparently is straight forward to the Saudias. She was kidnapped from a mall, forced into a car not driven by a male relative, then later charged with entering a car not driven by her husband or other male relatives. She was accused of having sex with a man who was not her husband; she was raped!

For these two "crimes"

• driving in a car without a male relative and
• having sex with a man not her husband,

she was sentenced to jail time and 90 lashes.

For the "crime" of speaking out about this horrific farce of "justice", her sentence was raised to 200 lashes and more jail time..

That kind of physical damage could kill if she were lashed 200 times at one "setting". So, she would have probably have been beaten a number of times with perhaps 10 lashes at each "session" (this is a guess, I don't know how much damage a lash causes). There is also the mental damage caused by having to wait for each beating and I know from personal experience that this anticipation is worst than the beating!

I just heard on CNN that the man she met was also

• kidnapped,
• raped,
• charged, tried and convicted of something based on his being kidnapped and raped.

However, I don't know if this is true as I can't find collaborating evidence. If this is true, then the rapists are equal opportunity bastards...

I've heard that rape is a crime of power and assuming this, one must conclude that rape has been used in Saudi Arabia to keep women in line. This is probably not the only society in which this has happened.