Justice
Headline: 'Saudi Kidnap, Rape Victim Faces Lashing'
Pertinent facts: This nineteen-year-old woman was kidnapped by seven knife-wielding men and gang-raped fourteen times. For this crime she has been sentenced to receive ninety lashes with a whip.
Under Islamic law, this makes sense.
How far have we already come down the road of appeasement when traditional liberals won't speak up even for her?
And traditional conservatives, long among the Saudis' best buddies, have no less share in the shame.
Sure, atrocities and injustice are nothing new. If anything, right now they're actually as scarce as they've ever been, if world history is taken as a whole. But i fear we are sliding into a new age of darkness when, in the face of such aggressively expansionist brutalism, even the most fervent former champions of tolerance and justice for all are now choosing, one by one, to sit silent.
I'm sorry; what happened to women's rights? Certainly Christian women beaten and tortured for their faith in other countries have long been ignored by feminist leaders. Still, one would think at least Muslim women - an oppressed minority if ever there were one - would merit some sort of feeble objection from the Enlightened West when such appalling abuse of their humanity is occasionally made public.
But not anymore.
This nineteen-year-old Saudi girl couldn't tell anyone about her horrifying ordeal. She knew what would happen if she did. Instead, she tried to kill herself. She didn't succeed. So now she waits, her personal hell still raging, for her sentence to be carried out.
Remember that old Derek Webb song about his friend's suicide? Here it has new poignancy, and the irony is crushing. I can't keep it out of my mind.
Pertinent facts: This nineteen-year-old woman was kidnapped by seven knife-wielding men and gang-raped fourteen times. For this crime she has been sentenced to receive ninety lashes with a whip.
Under Islamic law, this makes sense.
How far have we already come down the road of appeasement when traditional liberals won't speak up even for her?
And traditional conservatives, long among the Saudis' best buddies, have no less share in the shame.
Sure, atrocities and injustice are nothing new. If anything, right now they're actually as scarce as they've ever been, if world history is taken as a whole. But i fear we are sliding into a new age of darkness when, in the face of such aggressively expansionist brutalism, even the most fervent former champions of tolerance and justice for all are now choosing, one by one, to sit silent.
I'm sorry; what happened to women's rights? Certainly Christian women beaten and tortured for their faith in other countries have long been ignored by feminist leaders. Still, one would think at least Muslim women - an oppressed minority if ever there were one - would merit some sort of feeble objection from the Enlightened West when such appalling abuse of their humanity is occasionally made public.
But not anymore.
This nineteen-year-old Saudi girl couldn't tell anyone about her horrifying ordeal. She knew what would happen if she did. Instead, she tried to kill herself. She didn't succeed. So now she waits, her personal hell still raging, for her sentence to be carried out.
Remember that old Derek Webb song about his friend's suicide? Here it has new poignancy, and the irony is crushing. I can't keep it out of my mind.
what crimes have you committed
demanding such penance
that couldn't wait for five more minutes
and a cry for help?
and this room is so peaceful
and this room is so quiet
and i hate the silence
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