Do you have a link for this story? It sounds absolutely horrid and I would love to read more about it to get some facts.

I watch the newswires pretty carefully and this is the first I've heard of this. This didn't, by any chance, come to you via email, did it?

Well according to their custom this should never have happened since she should always be accompanied by her husband or a male family member to avoid such a mishap according to their culture. It just proves that there are sick people in every culture, the US not excluded either. It is quite sad that a woman's rights could be violated so poorly as this. The same thing happens in the slums of the US too so what is wrong with the degenerates of the US; What is wrong with these people?

The laws are nothing more than blatantly cruel and inhumane.

Sounds similar to where a girl in SA was "baby sitting" a toddler, but she was not qualified to feed it (and she had said this before). The child died and she is now up for beheading.

Cowboy, when I read the associated press article I wanted to pose a question, but each time I do I get blasted about how nice Muslims are and no doubt they are but according to Sharia law this is a lawful sentence for this 19 year old woman raped by 7 men. Even if she were screwing around, which is highly doubtful since a woman can be lawfully murdered for that, being raped and sentenced to jail and 200 lashings seems a bit much. When her attorney appealed the original sentence he was disbarred and her sentence was increased. Muslim leaders are bullies and we keep backing down to their bullying and we are going to wake up in a big pile of doodoo here shortly.

i think its better we leave everything the way its 'coze in every place in this world have laws to be abied and followed.the same thing could have happend in USA or anywhere else in this world if they had such laws.what i believe is that follow the rules and nothing happens to you.you break the law and you face the consequences.

I think it is really sad. From what I read the punishment is for her being with a non-family man when the attack occurred. That does not make it right though, as the real injustice is that the women in the countries ruled by sharia have no rights, they are not people, only the men count. That is the real crime. The women have to be covered as men cannot control themselves (!!!!) and this is flawed thinking and pathetic. We are all equal and being a woman does not make you a nothing.

I'm just glad I'm not a Saudi

WHAT????? This is horrific, the poor woman.. i would say this is bullying at its worst. What happened to the men who raped her by the way??

It is a deplorable part of Sharia Law and their culture. Were they not sitting on an ocean of oil, we would deem them a tyrannical regime, accuse them of extensive human rights violations, shut down their embassy in Washington and cease diplomatic relations with them. Thanks for asking an important question.

I never heard about it but I know these kind of things go on over that way. I agree with Julie Quack....if it wasnt for the oil Bush would have been in there years ago.....I dont agree with that either

1) "Lahem's latest client is a 19-year-old woman who was in a car with a male friend when she was kidnapped and gang-raped by seven men. In November, four of the men received prison sentences ranging from one to five years and 80 to 1,000 lashes, and three are awaiting sentencing. The rape victim was sentenced to 90 lashes for having been with a male friend, which is illegal in this strictly segregated country. Lahem, a slight, fragile-looking man, said he took the case because he was so incensed by that verdict." Source and further information: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/22/AR2006122201579.html 2) "The Higher Judicial Council granted a retrial, but, on November 14, a court toughened her sentence to six months in jail and 200 lashes. The judges decided to punish the woman further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media," a court source told the English-language daily Arab News. The court also revoked the licence of Lahem, a leading human rights activist. He has also been summoned by the justice ministry to appear before a disciplinary panel next month." http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/gangrape-victim-to-fight-lashings-verdict/2007/11/22/1195321896352.html 3) In Saudi Arabia, they have a strict islamic law. Such sentences punish women being in public with someone other than a relative. This has nothing to do with the rape. The sentence was toughened in the retrial because it was considered that the woman and her lawyer were trying to influence the judiciary through the media. They are still living in the Middle Ages, I would say. King Abdullah ranks 7 in a list of dictators who are in power at the moment: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/1756243

It's wrong. Her lawyer thinks it's wrong, her husband thinks it's wrong, and I haven't talked to anyone here in Saudi who doesn't think it's wrong.But they won't openly say what they think either. And why not? Because ANYTHING that's done in the name of Islam is presumed right from the get-go. And if you criticize the decision, by a kind of process of implication you are open to accusations that you are criticizing Islam - and that can cause you all kinds of problems. Not really different from the USA, where pointing out that the military kill more civilians than they do enemy will get you at best a bunch of hate mail and accusations of treason,etc, and in a lot of places it could get you hosipitalized if not worse. It's what happens to societies when they allow sacred cows to trump good sense.

I dunno. All I can ask myself is, "Why do they hate us?"

It is horrific. I wish she and her husband could come live in America. They might be a little safer from the twisted sickness infecting their inhumane laws.

While I do not agree with Saudi Arabia and its' laws, the woman was aware of the laws that she was supposed to be abiding. The woman was meeting an ex-boyfriend, without the knowledge of her husband. It is unfortunate for her that it happened, but perhaps she should have been following the rules.

I think most of you need a little bit of education...not trying to be rude or disrespect.but When the women's rights were already exsisting in the middle east...especially in islam...the west were living in the dark ages. I encourage you all to search that. The real question is....Why were the soldiers in Iraq dismissed for the what they did in abu gareeb jail? I think we need to worry about what's in america more than just sitting here and judging people & yeah try getting to know a muslim maybe that would help you get over your anger.

I disagree with their law.

well, saudi arabia always has it's own "islam". as an arab and a muslim, i can say that ALL arabic countries despise Saudi rules and label their actions "islam". The only people that ARE with saudi arabia, are saudi people themselves, because they're oil-brain-washed. and as creations if we were in their place we'd act the same, how can the gov't that gives us money, houses, value, and money money money .. be wrong when they say anything about religion? specially when they added "sheikh"(religious man) in front of their names .. well, couple of proves and facts: - islam doesn't allow "kingdom-ness" in islam, and its called "The kingdom of saudi arabia?????" - on arabic TV's MANY religious men go up on TV saying that a new rule in islam was discussed and changed in Saudi Arabic such as marrying 4 women without a reason, WHY?? because they got paid 9BILLION dollars by the saudi gov't to say it so when saudi leaders do it(sheikh does things against religion!!) the media and saudis will explode and it'd look bad, so its always easier for 'em to change and play around with religion in order to marry 34 women and at the end he figured that he was about to marry his own daughter that he never knew*true story for a sheikh in KSA!!.

I'm a Saudi. It is funny to see how salt and peper is added to anything realted to Saudi Arabia. The true story is that she went out to see one of the two guys who was a lover, "by the way, they were two men and she knew both men as they had previous relationship which is against the law, specially that she is a married woman". In Saudi Arabia, if a man rapes a woman, he is sentenced to death. But since both the woman and her two ex-boyfriends violated the law, they were all punished. Anyway, this is not the first lie improvised by the american media.

Well, the only aspect of it that brings some ray of light, is that this behavior is being seen by the world's eye and illumination of this act will help obliterate it in the future if we are of the mind to stop these atrocities. We do not have to travel to Saudi to point the finger. Try researching the behaviors of some of our significant tribes in the good ol' USA. Read much about the Ku Klux Klan or the Skin Heads or the Aryan Nation lately. THERE HERE!! And we are letting them get away with brutality far worse that that, if possible.

Is that worse than the Americans who tortured, raped and sodomized young women and boys in Abu Garhib and got away with a slap on the wrist? Why TF should that be the West's problem or concern, particularly, when the West itself is committing more heinious crimes? Shouldn't they just live and let die?

barbaric