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Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 05:06:17 PM EST
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The Guardian reports:

Dozens of Saudi men caught dancing and "behaving like women" at a party have been sentenced to a total of 14,200 lashes, after a trial held behind closed doors and without defence lawyers. The men were also given jail sentences of up to two years. They were arrested last month when the police in Jeddah raided a party which was described by a Saudi newspaper as a "gay wedding".

Human Rights Watch said it had established that 31 of the men received prison sentences of six months to one year, plus 200 lashes each. Four were jailed for two years with 2,000 lashes.

[Link via Raw Story.] Background on the police raid is here.

Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia and is punished by flogging, jail or death. The raid was made a day after two men described as gay lovers were executed at Arar, in the north of the kingdom, for allegedly murdering a Pakistani who had found out about their relationship.

This isn't the first such raid, although there aren't many details about prior punishments. The Saudis deny they execute citizens merely for illegal sexual activity. So what lesser punishment do they mete out, castration maybe?

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    Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging | 14 comments (14 topical)
    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 05:32:30 PM EST
    I wonder if they're Shi`ite or of Iranian ethnicity (as are large numbers of people in that area of Arabia) Because that's very strange since men dancing and "behaving like women" is a common feature of Iranian weddings. There's even a very funny dance called the Baba Karam where a man will imititate a very old decrepit cane-using man and another man will often dance the woman's part. I don't know as much about Arab weddings in the eastern Arab world since most of my time was spent in the Maghreb but I am very familiar with this aspect of Iranian culture (Iranians throw great partys btw). As for the "gay" part, I'd like to see more. This sounds like typical Saudi Wahhabist fundamentalism- they're allergic to fun and beauty.

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 05:53:21 PM EST
    A gay Saudi friend of mine who went to school here but is now living in London says yes. All of the above. Executions, castration, public dismemberment, flogging. All are meted out and the only evidence required to convict is having been accused.

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#3)
    by clio on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 06:19:41 PM EST
    Does one survive 2000 lashes? Uncrippled?

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#4)
    by Pete Guither on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 06:37:43 PM EST
    So we'll be invading now? I'm still trying to get this straight. I had mistakenly thought that we invaded Iraq for WMD or terrorims, but then it turned out that it was because the people there were living in an oppressive regime with rape rooms. So I guess Saudis are next?

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#5)
    by scarshapedstar on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 07:32:31 PM EST
    Pete, why would we invade them for defending traditional families?

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 08:13:14 PM EST
    Yeah, PETE...Why the sarcastic flair? Ya know, when you have a pre existing bend against someone, surely whatever they do will be subject to YOUR interperetation. When the anti war activists cried doom and gloom about hitler, they too were unable to look at the big picture. To be sure Bush boy was misled into this conflict, and he should be subject to the questions that arose, but LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE, big deal. He got rid of the equivalent to adolph, but you play like "It's too late, pal, you already said your reason, the rest doesn't count. You gotta use the first one and we're holding it to you... Sort of like a "Nanner Nanner Nanner." Never mind we saw pictures of little Kurdish kids laying bloated and dead in the streets to satisfy this freaks power play, right? It's BUSH....If it's BUSH it's wrong...Sorry, if you weren't being snotty, I apologize. It just looked that way..

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#7)
    by cp on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 09:56:03 PM EST
    gee timesantabarbara, you are a tad late on the "little Kurdish kids laying bloated and dead in the streets", since that would have been 1988, the one and only time saddam used gas on iraqis. let's see, who was president then? think, think, think! oh, wait, i remember now, it was some other guy named bush. no relation, i'm sure. see, this "other guy" named bush actually went so far as to sell weapons to that nasty old saddam, because he had started a war with those even nastier iranians, and he was our boy in the middle east. geez, why do i even waste valuable time, time i'll never recover, responding to a moron like you?

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 11:59:49 PM EST
    Homosexuality trumps multiculturalism.

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 09:26:03 AM EST
    bendito humps poodles

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#10)
    by glanton on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 09:34:02 AM EST
    I wonder how many who voted for Dubya and "people" like Rick Santorum and Tom Coburn would approve of such treatment of homosexuals here in the good ole USA, if it weren't for those damned activist judges. They certainly squealed like stuck pigs when Lawrence v Texas came down. Decrying the Saudis is one thing: still better to begin by being careful we don't end up there eventually ourselves.

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#11)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 10:33:49 AM EST
    No wonder the Bush family loves the Saudis so.

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#12)
    by jeaubleau on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 01:05:43 PM EST
    It would be funny to see the look on the Saudi's faces when we tell them they must now accept homosexuality as normal the way we do in the U.S., or else face the wrath of our war machine.

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#13)
    by Dadler on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 02:07:57 PM EST
    Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging ...while the saudi royal family and elite engage in the most decadent, immoral, perverted kind of behavior with our consent and support.

    Re: Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Apr 25, 2005 at 08:11:09 AM EST
    It's so funny that people talk without actually not knowing whats happening in Saudi Arabia. Saudis laws are from the Shariah the Islamic laws, and gays are forbidden, what will happen of half a nation becomes gays, how will a nation survive if it doesn't reproduce, population goes down, so does the country.

    Saudis Torture Gays With Flogging | 14 comments (14 topical)