Saudi Arabia, Non Amour

Another Friday, another rash of stories from Arabia S.

First of all, the 'girl from Qatif', the rape victim who was attacked by seven men while sitting in a car with an unrelated male, is now in a world of trouble. After reporting the rape, she was sentenced to 90 lashes for fraternisation with the car-owner. After appealing, the sentence was increased to 200 lashes and six months in jail, with the judges linking the increase directly to 'foreign interference.'

And then it gets worse. The Saudi response to any international outcry has always been to escalate rather than to back down, and now they have discovered that the victim from Qatif is even more of a red painted jezebel than your ordinary rape victim (because it's always the woman's fault, hein?). Suddenly, and in direct contrast to her earlier statements, she's allegedly confessing to adultery, a crime punishable in Saudi by death.

How strange that she didn't remember those capital crimes before embarassing the country.