Saudi king revokes woman's lashing sentence
Sheima Jastaniah had been sentenced to 10 lashes for breaking ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia.
By DPA Tags: IslamSaudi King Abdullah revoked a sentence of 10 lashes against a woman for breaking the ban on women driving in the kingdom, Arab media reported Thursday.
"Thank God, the lashing of Sheima is cancelled. Thanks to our beloved King," said Princess Amira al-Taweel, wife of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, on her twitter account.
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A Saudi woman driving a car, June 2011. |
| Photo by: AP |
"I'm proud to be Saudi. To all active Saudi women thank you for your efforts," said the princess according to broadcaster Al Arabiya.
Sheima Jastaniah was sentenced on Monday by a court in Jeddah, where she was caught driving in July.
The London-based Amnesty International on Wednesday condemned the sentence, saying it demonstrated the "scale of discrimination against women in the kingdom."
The sentence came a day after the king announced women would be allowed to vote and to run in municipal polls, and to join the all-appointed consultative Council in the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia imposes a strict interpretation of Islamic law on women's behavior.
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While King Abdullah's thinkng might not be 100% clear at times, on this one even a blind man could make it out. Making the vote accessible to everyone while preventing the ladies from getting to a voting place on their own is about a backwards as you could get. That Abdullah saw the complete idiocy in the thinking and situation and corrected it is a massive step forward in bringing Saudi Arabia into the mainstream of the 21st century. He should be, more so than his father, credited with helping to bring Saudi Arabia into this century as a modern country. One can but hope that this is the 1st step in bringing Saudi Arabia into a more directly responsible and active role in world affairs, free of theocraticly driven and hysterically invoked motives and goals.
Perhaps they want to be part of the 21st Century after all