Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft. In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.
The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read. Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent. [source]
Now before you say anything, it’s actually not as bad as it sounds. I mean, technically they only beat her and forced a confession out of her. They could’ve thrown her in a deep well of water to see if she floats or drowns.
By them sending letters to rulers they legitimize their illegal power,and that is wrong and goes against the whole idea of freedom and justice!
@ Mohannad:
Usually I would agree with you, but has anyone asked the woman if she wants to play the tragic hero? No. And as long as she doesn’t want that, the human rights groups have to fight for her, not for dogmas.
I completly understand what you are saying, and I agree with it 100%, but, you are asking for something that is just from and unjust and dictatorial system, thus giving it more power and ligitimization. Human rights groups should be able to create momentum and public opinion that drives change, but in the case of saudi arabia you would assume that the majority of the public would believe such superstitious baseless accusations. So the solution would be bringing such acts to the world stage where you unveil opression and human rights violations and we all know the power of image.
If that women was princes or came from rich family ,she would not even step one foot in the police station but if you are member of the royal family and embezzle billion of dollars you will be set free and awarded and here is an example…
And those are the US allies in this region.
The who ordeal of the sentence and trial of the poor lady is sad. However, we need to understand the Saudi people mentality in order to put this matter into prespecitve.
90% of Saudis believe in “Seher”. The arabic translation of the english term “Black Magic”. It is mentioned in the Quran, and all muslims beleive some people can obtain certain powers that allows them to hurt others by establishing certain rleationships with demon. I know that the whole thing sound comical, but this issue plays a siginficant role into many Muslims Psyche. Add to it that alot Saudi are not well educated and cultured, and you can understand how such an incidint does’t attract much attention into a typical saudi mind. In fact, there are dozen other cases every year where “whitches” male or female are excuted , without much objection from anybody.
It is extremely sad that in the 21st century, we still have to discuss stories like this.
It’s beyond me how these “religious authorities” can use capital punishment on whatever case they deem necessary. Taking someone’s life is an exclusive right of God in Islam, and can only be used by humans in *very limited* circumstances after investigation, and after a complex process that discourages rash accusations and sentencing. I’ve never heard that witchcraft is a crime punishable by death in Islamic law. And in any case, how can you PROVE that someone actually is guilty of it?! If it takes FOUR witnesses of the *actual act* of intercourse deemed fornication or adultery for the accused to be given the Islamic sentence, then how can a “crime” that seems much less serious be proven so easily?! The Saudi authorities are by far some of the worst violators of Islamic law in our world today. It sickens me to the core.
The Answer to all of the comments is the “WAHABI’S” it is the wahabi thought their ideology they destroyed islam funded extremists and extremist thought wasted all of the land wealth for nothing and put the people in the medieval times
HAHAHAHA!
Have the men been examined by doctors (several countries) to determine that there is no physiological or pschycological cause of their impotence (performance or fertility) to rule out those possibilities before they take a life?