Report: 30 Lashes, Jail for Saudi who Slapped Wife
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A Saudi man who slapped his wife has earned himself a flogging and jail sentence, in a rare ruling in the Gulf kingdom that imposes stiff restrictions on women, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
A court in the town of Safwa, in the eastern Qatif district, sentenced the man to 10 days in jail and 30 lashes, al-Sharq daily said.
The judge also allowed the woman to attend the flogging and ordered her husband to enroll in a course on dealing with partners.
The woman, in her twenties, had lodged a complaint against her husband after he slapped her during an argument. The man admitted hitting her, saying his wife "was rude to his parents."
The ruling is very uncommon in the ultra-conservative kingdom, where men usually get the upper hand, while women are dependent on their male guardians in most aspects of their lives.
Women need a close male relative to accompany them if they enter government buildings and courts.
Saudi women also are banned from driving and are obliged to cover themselves from head to toe when they are in public.
The King Khalid Foundation, which is a Saudi charity, launched in May the kingdom's first anti-domestic violence advertising campaign.
05 June 2013, 13:33
03
How amazing this woman's voice was heard and even a punishment issued to the husband. Perhaps the King Khalid's Foundation is beginning to help females citizens in many different ways, not just the powerful poster on domestic abuse? Although the rape laws still seem archaic and more like chattel rules so there is along way to go before females are legally treated as dignified, civilised human beings.
05 June 2013, 14:16
13
This article is in the "Offbeat" section because normally the woman would have been flogged.
07 June 2013, 18:27
00
Better than in the west where many wife abusers get sentenced to anger management and thats that, but still not enough. This is one case only lest we forget, how many women have not been given any justice in saudi arabia, america, turkey, france and all over the world?
Every man who beats a woman should be beaten by the state, jailed and fined and any future partner of his should be informed and warned of his violent tendencies by the state. Should he repeat the beating of a woman then he should be forbidden by law to even exist in the same room as women. That is how you end wife battering not by stupid worthless sentences. The east and the west have both failed women.
