Imagine this in a civilized world!

Try this for a scenario - a young woman is gang-raped in say usa or london. The rapists are given a few months, while the victim is sentenced to three months in jail with 90 lashes as well. But when her lawyer appeals for a stiffer sentence for the men, it is her sentence that is doubled!

Can you image the worldwide uproar?!

Except this has actually happened in Saudi Arabia. In much of the muslim world, this horrifying episode has been virtually blanked out of the public consciousness, with the media maintaining a discreet silence.

And to top it all, the judges have barred the defence lawyer from appearing in their court. Because according to them the lawyer has attempted to influence the court by going public with this story!

The tragedy began last year when this 19 year old woman got into a male colleagues car to discuss some last minute work. Some men enter the car, force them to drive into some deserted area, where they are joined by the rest of the gang. There, they gang-rape the lady and attack her male companion.

When the traumatised woman and her husdand report the matter to the police, she is accused of being the company of a 'na-mehram' (an un-related male), a crime in Saudi Arabia. She gets sentensed to three months jail and 90 lashes and when she appeals, the sentence is doubled.

Imagine this in a civilzed world!

Saudi Arabia - the planets biggest exporter of petroleum, the Saudi ruling family does not care what the rest of the world thinks of them or their country. Even the White House, normally ever ready to pass judgement or critise human-rights violations around the world are reduced to mumbling about "cultual differences"!

This whole epidode casts an unflattering light on the archaic laws, interpreted by judges or mullas with little or no formal legal training. How can the backbone of a country or a set of countries following a certain relegious law be a collection of tribal customs and rules imposed by men who seldom bother and are invariably harsh and anti-women?

No system in the civilized world allows victims of crimes to be punished and yet in a major part of the world its a the plight of half of the human race....women....... dont get the respect and regard for being the "continum of human life".

We are fighting to save the planet. How about saving the other half of the human race as well?

Is this a civilized world we live in?