In The Sandbox, Yesterday and Today

A couple has been sentenced to jail and lashings for abducting a newborn baby from a hospital. Pretty stiff sentence for the man - not so stiff for the woman - and it looks as though she was the one that did the actual kidnapping. Go figure. That's the way things are done, here. When I got my second speeding ticket on our compound, DH was the one who got in trouble for it [let me tell you he was NOT all to pleased with me, either!]. The man, who is not identified by either name or nationality, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail and 13,000 lashes. That is 5475 days in jail - 15 years times 365 days a year - and 2.37 lashes per day. Severe. The woman, on the other hand, who did the actual taking of the child from the hospital has only been sentenced to three years in jail and 1500 lashes - works out to be about 1.37 lashes per day. I guess, in a society where men are held to be responsible for the women, that this is just one of the consequences.

In a case still before the courts, a man has been charged by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, for being in the company of two teenage girls and a young boy - that he was not related to. Sounds to me, from the report, like a story of a good Samaritan trying to help some homeless children and now, the man is in trouble for it and may spend a month in prison. The man was a former neighbor of the two girls and one boy and he took them "into his home while attempting to find them suitable care through official channels" after their uncle abandoned them - their father is in jail and their mother has since remarried [and wants nothing to do with her own children?!?]. The charge is "khilwa," which is the "illegal seclusion with non-related members of the opposite sex." [Also spelled "khulwa?"] Moral of the story? Don't help anyone not related to you. Hopefully the court will see the good in the man and not punish him for trying to help.

Do teachers' unions protect teacher's from violence? I know that in the States the teachers' unions protect teachers from being fired and from actually teaching... Perhaps a teachers' union is needed in The Sandbox [sarcasm, off]. An awful lot of violence against teachers. Reading the article you'd think you were reading about something taking place in Chicago or Baltimore.

This is just mind-boggling. Mind. Boggling. A court has sentenced a "runaway divorced woman to four years in prison after finding her guilty of adultery." Here is just one of the reasons why I say that it is mind boggling: What about the man involved? How come he has not been punished, too? The woman "gave birth to an illegitimate child." Okay. But it takes two to tango. Where is the father of the woman's illegitimate child, and how is it that he is not being forced to accept some responsibility? Interesting that the woman could have received the death penalty for her - ahh - indiscretion - but because of "special circumstances" [which were, what, exactly? the article doesn't clearly state what the "special circumstances" were] she was granted some leniency, regardless of the fact that "the prosecutor demanded capital punishment as the woman in question had been married." Oh - and if she had NOT been married, she would have received 100 lashes as well." Guess she should consider herself lucky, then, with her four-year prison term.

An article about illegitimate children and shame, here. Although it gives an outsider a glimpse into a certain mindset that is part of this society, I just don't have the time, or the desire, to comment on it paragraph by paragraph, today.

An innocent three-month-old baby boy was drowned by his own mother. Thank goodness the father showed some common sense and notified the police. The mother of the baby claimed "that their little boy had gone missing." Sure. Because we all know that a three-month-old baby can either just get up out of his crib and walk away, or ride his bike, right? The baby was found "floating dead" in a pond and the mother has been arrested and sent to a "mental hospital." A case of postpartum depression, maybe?

What's the count? No idea. Will figure out what it is another day... But here is another one. The man, a Saudi national, was executed beheaded for killing his wife.