A peek into the world of Saudi female prisoners

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/February/middleeast_February71.xml§ion=middleeast&col=

WHEN one thinks of a prison, the picture that he has in his mind is that of men, which is not wrong. But the fact that there are also women behind bars is not so well or widely known.

The Arabic daily Al Watan, spoke to women prisoners recently. A middle-aged woman, mentioned just by her initials SH, said her ordeal began when she was six years old. She has landed behind bars over and over again, and has spent most of the 34 years or so in jail. She revealed how she became a drug addict, drug dealer and found herself in bed with several men. Now aged 40, she felt recounting those horrible years might help deter others. snip

When she was caught by the anti-drug police she was pregnant for the third time but the drug abuse led to complications with the pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. One of her friends then introduced her to yet another drug trafficker, who offered her a job in return for supporting SH and her daughter. "I agreed because I was desperate, even though I knew the dangers involved," she said. "But just before I started working for this man, the religious police caught both of us, as he was visiting me at my house," she added.

She was sentenced to two years in prison for an immoral affair and five months for drug addiction. Her good conduct and discipline in prison led to an early release upon completion of half of her prison term. But she didn't learn from the time behind bars. She began seeing another man. They were arrested when they were alone and she was sent behind bars once again.

and was the subject of a movie I found fascinating: "The Circle."

Her harshest punishment has been for the crime of having sex.

These are BushCo's allies in the War On Terror, because I guess it isn't terror if you are only terrorizing women.

Stoning or beheading is the preferred option, depending on the locale.

in his SOTU speech.

He can't see these stonings and beheadings, because he is holding hands with Royalty!

I get this error.

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'

SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

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Never saw that one before. :shrug:

This is considered absolutely a fact of life. For us, it's shocking, disgusting, absurd, it's tyranny. When issues like this are mentioned, I, like most of you, want to get up off my ass and go do something about it. There are simply... too many complications.

When the fools made their decision to invade Iraq, I had a long discussion with my Father. It's not merely a matter of invading a sovereign Nation based on false allegations in order to make the rich richer. There is more to it, we are destroying, and attempting to recreate a culture that has existed for thousands of years. Womens rights are simply not at the top of the list. Consider, if you will, how long it has taken for Europeans, or for us in the US to begin taking it seriously. To this day, we have a great deal of sexist people in the "free" Nations of the world. Only now, the battle is fought on more fronts (Misogynists VS what our pal Rush Limbaugh calls "feminazis").

In Iraq, it's far more complicated. Women never had free rights to begin with, they have only recently begun to vote or to to truly gain any strength at all in that area. Every time they attempt to take a step forward they will have to fight for ground. Babysteps are what are being taken now. Slowly they advance to the same point as the rest of us in the more "civilized" Nations. For thousands of years, these women have been kept isolated, forced to cover their heads and every part of their bodies. For thousands of years, these women have been forced to serve their husbands as little better than slaves. There are of course, some exceptions to this general rule, but they are few.

Now... taking into consideration their culture, what the vast majority of their people still believe... and the fact that changes are only being made due to our presence and lots of pressure from the international world.... well, it seems likely to me that if we were to remove our occupying force, these women would lose what little they have gained. In this case, for efforts to continue would require... well, to put it simply, a revolution by the Iraqi women. I fear it would be a thousand times harder for them, than it was for women in the US.

This does not mean hope is lost, but it does mean that we must consider the evolution of societies. As we all know, our own society is not what we would like it to be... it is not what I would consider "highly evolved". Nor, indeed, is any Nation I have ever visitted. We have our own battles to fight on our own ground before we may lay claim to that title. Free rights for the women of Iraq and other Countries in which they are oppressed... that is something that could well take many, many generations to accomplish. We will not see the tyrrany vanquished in our lifetimes I'm afraid.

In fact, all things considered, perhaps what's happening in the US right now could be considered "devolving" for every civil rights issue you can think of.

Again though, all hope is not lost. However... we must trust in the will of the people. If not for thousands of brave men and women in our own Country, we would be under English control today. We took our fate into our own hands, we must encourage others to find that courage... that strength, encourage them, not force them.

and that they are only "now" gaining strength,, you need to be educated

Women were allowed to be educated, work, and dress without the veil. Hussein did not sponsor a religious police. Women are now less free relative to men than they were before.
You may be thinking of Afganistan as a country where women had things very bad under their governemnt before we invaded.

I appreciate it, interesting and very sad.

not? those islamics have really been nice to the women in this case. that religon, my, so...progressive. or maybe
its just that good old arabic culture of men men men instead of islam.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/dean2008.htm

Why don't you educate me? I think I'm pretty well informed on this situation, but please, feel free to point out any particular point about which I may have been wrong. However, if you're going to criticize, I would appreciate it if you would enlighten me by providing correct information. Condescending remarks are as always, appreciated, but not needed.