Saudi woman gets lashes for driving

This video says about itself:

30 October 2009

Bernard Hammelburg being interviewed by Davion Ford about the barbaric and medieval sentences in Saudi Arabia.

That the Saudi Arabian royal dictatorship recently made at least a symbolic concession to the women’s movement and the “Arab Spring” by at last allowing women to vote (for councils that lack real power) does not mean that the United States-allied Saudi monarchy is no longer a tyranny.

From the BBC today:

Saudi woman to be lashed for defying driving ban

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country’s ban on female drivers.

The woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July.

Women2drive, which campaigns for women to be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, says she has already lodged an appeal.

In recent months, scores of women have driven vehicles in Saudi cities in an effort to put pressure on the monarchy to change the law.

The sentence comes two days after the Saudi leader King Abdullah announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015.

Two other women are due to appear in court later this year on similar charges, correspondents say.

The name of the woman condemned to being flogged is Shaima Ghassaniya, according to this report.

Saudi woman driver vows to appeal flogging sentence: here.

Saudi king says women can have the vote—just not quite yet: here.

Saudi woman ‘spared lashing’ in driving case: here.

Mecca for the rich: Islam’s holiest site ‘turning into Vegas’. Historic and culturally important landmarks are being destroyed to make way for luxury hotels and malls, reports Jerome Taylor: here.

Time to change US policy toward Saudi Arabia: here.