Nations Behaving Badly
600 Lashes for Raif Badawi
Islamic authorities sentenced a liberal journalist to 600 lashes and seven years in prison, after he questioned the role of religion. David Keyes reports on the latest outrage in the Kingdom.
“I
feel sick. I think I’m going to throw up,” a prominent Saudi academic
told me yesterday. “I was waiting for something like this to happen but
I didn’t think it would be Raif. I’m thinking of his wife and kids. I
really feel sick.”
On July 29, Raif Badawi,
founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, was sentenced to 600 lashes
and seven years in prison. His crime? Insulting Islam, speaking ill of
Saudi Arabia’s religious police and, most puzzling of all, “parental
disobedience.”
Badawi is a 30-year-old man. Can an adult be imprisoned for disobeying his father? In Saudi Arabia,
where all citizens are treated as children, the answer to that question
is “yes.” The Saudi dictatorship doesn’t trust its citizens to speak
their mind, and so impose paternalistic and draconian laws to keep in
check those who might think differently.
Women
in particular are infantilized, and their ability to move around,
unaccompanied by a male guardian, is severely restricted. Women are
banned from driving. They cannot go to coffee shops or restaurants with a
male friend. And according to Saudi law, a woman cannot decide for
herself to go on religious pilgrimage. She must have a man’s approval
and be accompanied by her guardian.
Saudi
Arabia is considered a close U.S. ally. Yet every few weeks a case like
Badawi’s reminds us that despite a massive PR effort, the Kingdom
remains a vicious tyranny that will lock you away for speaking openly
about politics or religion.
Can an adult be imprisoned for disobeying his father? In Saudi Arabia, where all citizens are treated as children, the answer to that question is ‘yes.’
In
June, seven men were convicted and sentenced to prison terms up to 10
years for writing posts on Facebook about political protests. The men
were held in prison for a year and a half before they were even charged
and tried, according to international human rights organizations.
Also
in June, two prominent women’s rights activists, Wajeha al Huweidar and
Fawzia Al-Oyouni, were convicted and sentenced to a ten-month prison
term on charges of inciting separation between a husband and a wife. Reportedly, they had tried to help a Quebec woman
escape her abusive husband and bring her to the Canadian embassy in
Riyadh. In fact, the Saudi government had been consistently harassing
these women and used these trumped up charges to finally silence them.
And the list goes on.
The
23-year-old poet and writer Hamza Kashgari, who was accused of
insulting the prophet Muhammad after he tweeted three short messages on
Twitter describing an imagined meeting with the prophet, has spent
almost a year and a half in prison, and his fate is still uncertain.
Khaled al Johani,
a teacher in Riyadh, was thrown in prison in 2011 after he gave an
interview to the BBC, calling for democracy in Saudi Arabia. He was
released last year.
Since
its creation in 1932, Saudi Arabia has been ruled by the male
descendants of the kingdom’s eponymous founder, Ibn Saud. The current
ruler, King Abdullah, has been lauded in recent years for taking steps
toward reform such as the inauguration in 2009 of the King Abdullah
Science and Technology University where men and women can study together
- a first in the kingdom. And last year in Vienna, he opened the King
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and
Intercultural Dialogue – a center supposedly aimed at promoting comity
and respect between religions.
But
if the Saudi king was really interested in dialogue and respect, he
might have started in his own theocratic, gender-apartheid
dictatorship. Why did he need to fund a $20 million a year center in
Austria when his own country bans Christians from importing Bibles and
building houses of worship? Why, indeed, did he need to fly to Europe
for such ceremonial ribbon-cutting when in his own country he could have
stopped the beheading of Abdul Hamid Al Fakki and Amina bint Nasser for
“witchcraft”? If he cared about respecting people of other faiths, how
about letting non-Muslims step foot in the city of Mecca where they are
banned? Or not arresting people for celebrating Christmas? Why not
stop the printing of Saudi textbooks that call Jews and Christians “apes
and pigs”?
Let’s
be clear. Saudi Arabia is still a brutal dictatorship that harasses and
imprisons liberals, democrats, activists, bloggers and journalists.
It’s a place where women don’t have freedom of movement or access to the
same services as men. The guardianship system ensures that women are
treated as children who needs a man’s permission to do anything of
consequence.
We
look away because Saudi Arabia buys Western arms and sells oil at a
steady price. It may seem like a good, stable arrangement. But it’s a
devil’s bargain and lurking beneath the surface are deeper trends--the
same ones that led to chaos and collapse in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya
and Syria in the past two years alone. Betting on Saudi stability is a
crucial mistake.
Activists
such as Badawi are silenced in order to sow fear among others who might
dare to challenge the dictatorship. This week, by imprisoning the young
campaigner, the Saudi government proved, yet again, that it cannot
tolerate those who think differently. A government that treats its
people with such contempt deserves respect from no one. And rather than
maintain the cozy diplomatic relations with this tyranny, the West
should apply massive pressure to get Badawi and other political
prisoners released.
Saudi Arabia remains a barbaric dictatorship. It’s time the West start treating it as such.
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