Have you seen this?  A 19-year old woman in Saudi Arabia was gang raped by seven men.  Because she was in a car with a male who was not her relative, but rather a student she used to know, she is being punished with six months in jail and 200 lashes.  She will be permanently scarred from those lashes, not like being gang-raped by seven men wouldn't be scarring enough or anything. 

It's when I read about things like this, that it makes me appreciate how lucky I am to live in the country that I do.  We're not perfect here.  We have problems with womens issues and we certainly have issues with rape here too.  But I doubt there is a single person in this country who thinks that a victim of gang-rape by seven men needs any additional punishment for her so-called "crime." 

When I was in graduate school, I used to tutor three master's level students from Saudi Arabia.  I helped them as an ESL (English as a Second Language) tutor.  We would often sit and have long conversations about Saudi Arabia and what life was like there.  One of my students told me that there was virtually no crime there because those who steal lose their hands, quite a deterrent for a shop-lifter.  While it's all fine and good that their robbery rates may be lower, the media is often reporting vicious rapes that punish the victims.  We also hear about honor killings where families believe that once a woman has been raped, it's their responsibility to kill their own family member to restore honor to their family.

It's this warped kind of thinking that infuriates me.  It shows a complete lack of respect for women.  It shows a complete inability to empathize with a victim.  It gives men free reign to do whatever they want to the poor women who live in countries with ridiculous laws like these, because women don't want to report the crime for fear that they'll be given lashes and jail time as well, if not worse.  While the men in the Saudi Arabia incident are being punished with jail time, what they're doing to the woman is nothing short of disgusting. They are taking a young victim of a violent crime and further destroying her. 

For those who might say that it's none of our business what they are doing in Saudi Arabia and other countries that buy into this ridiculous mind set, I couldn't disagree more.  What they're doing to that woman and others like her is a crime that should concern us all.  It's a crime against human decency.