Anyone know what Saudi "lashes" are like?

I ask because I was shocked to hear of that Saudi woman's sentence... 90, let alone 200, traditional Royal Navy lashes---the only lashes I've read much about, in Robert Hughes' THIS FATAL SHORE---would be a death sentence.

In the Royal Navy, twenty lashes to the back could expose bare ribs, or even the spine.

(Even if the sentence were one slap in the face it would be an outrage. I am just wondering if that Saudi sentence of punishment is intended to be permanently disabling or life threatening.)

Allowing the convicted person to partly heal between batches.

20 lashes a week for 10 consecutive weeks - any normal person would be a basket case by week 6.

:scared:

And so painful that they have to administer the punishment over a long period of time, with breaks in between, as people often pass out.

Can you say "barbarism?"

Barbarism is 100% correct.

Here's some stuff from Amnesty International:

Offences related to alcohol, breaking strict moral codes and theft are punished by anything from 50 to several thousand lashes, carried out in prison or in public squares with a bamboo stick.

There appears to be no upper limit on the number of lashes judges can impose. The most lashes in a single case recorded by Amnesty International is 4,000, imposed on Muhammad 'Ali al-Sayyid, an Egyptian convicted of robbery in 1990. The sentence was reportedly carried out at a rate of 50 lashes every two weeks. After each session he was left with bruised and bleeding buttocks, unable to sleep or sit for three or four days afterwards.

but not a peep from them about saving a 19 year old rape victim from this barbarism. :grr:

This is accurate--it's still barbaric, no matter how lightly the punishment is applied:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia
Saudi Arabia is one of a number of countries where courts continue to impose corporal punishment, including amputations of hands and feet for robbery, and lashings for lesser crimes such as "sexual deviance" and drunkenness. The number of lashes is not clearly prescribed by law and is varied according to the discretion of judges, and ranges from dozens of lashes to several thousand, usually applied over a period of weeks or months. The person administering the lashes is required to keep a Qur'an under the armpit of the arm with which he delivers the blows so as to limit the force of the strike. In 2002, the United Nations Committee against Torture criticized Saudi Arabia over the amputations and floggings it carries out under its interpretation of Sharia. The Saudi delegation responded defending "legal traditions" held since the inception of Islam 1400 years ago and rejected interference in its legal system.

because when you tell people that, they tend to look askance.

It seems counterintuitive to put the venerated book under what is pretty much always a stinky armpit...

I got the willies when I read your post, though.

When did torture become "cool?" Oh, yeah, the 2000 election.