Saudi king saves woman driver from 10 lashes

[stevedeshazer]

Source: The Telegraph (UK)

Saudi King Abdullah has overturned a court verdict that sentenced a Saudi woman to be lashed 10 times for defying the kingdom's ban on women driving.

The revelation was made by a government official, who asked to remain anonymous, and who would not reveal the king's reasons for intervening in the case.
A day earlier, a Saudi court found Shaima Jastaina guilty of violating the driving ban, and sentenced her to 10 lashes, igniting a firestorm in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

It was the first time a legal punishment had been handed down for breaking the longtime ban in the ultraconservative Muslim nation. No laws prohibit women from driving, but conservative religious edicts have banned it.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/8795748/Saudi-king-saves-woman-driver-from-10-lashes.html

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Maybe Saudi Arabia is turning it around little by little.

[Katashi_itto]

4. No the Saudi Royal now fear their people. Anything to remain in power. Arab Spring.

[Dorian Gray]

10. I think that the royal family

may also be less religiously fundamentalist than the courts which ruled for the lashing.

It helps their international perception to commute the punishment.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Saudi king saves woman driver from 10 lashes

Source: The Telegraph

The revelation was made by a government official, who asked to remain anonymous, and who would not reveal the king's reasons for intervening in the case.

A day earlier, a Saudi court found Shaima Jastaina guilty of violating the driving ban, and sentenced her to 10 lashes, igniting a firestorm in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

It was the first time a legal punishment had been handed down for breaking the longtime ban in the ultraconservative Muslim nation. No laws prohibit women from driving, but conservative religious edicts have banned it.

Earlier this week, King Abdullah announced that women will have the right to vote and run in the country's 2015 local elections.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/8795748/Saudi-king-saves-woman-driver-from-10-lashes.html

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Awesome.

I posted an article about the lashings the other day: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2014713

[Ian David]

3. Probably because he's thinking about what will happen when word of THIS gets out...

Report: Saudi prince beaten by plainclothes police in gay nightclub in Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x186058

[druidity33]

5. How many Saudi princes are there?

I would love it if he became courageous, and defiantly named himself. It shouldn't matter that he's a Prince or a Muslim. What should matter is he was horribly beaten for being gay and no one will be prosecuted for it.

:(

[No Elephants]

6. You'd have to be VERY courageous to come out in a Muslim country.

Stoning is a horrible way to die.

I appreciate your general impetus, but the problem in Muslim countries is not that gays lack the courage to come out.

[druidity33]

9. well, he is a prince...

i assume he is wealthy enough to live in a country that allows homosexuality...

:shrug:

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. Isn't the "royal family" like 30k people? Correction: 7k people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saud

[riderinthestorm]

7. I'm not there but if i were the female activists on this, NOW would be the time to drive en masse

Since the king has just stayed this punishment, the women driving activists should stage their protest now imho. A tricky moment for the king with the ME in the throes of the Arab Spring, in theory he'd be hard-pressed to lash ALL of them and provoke a monstrous reaction.