We have another outrage under Sharia law. In Dubai, a 23-year-old woman from London was assaulted by a waiter in a hotel toilet. She was celebrating her engagement with her boyfriend. The Muslim woman of Pakistani descent and her boyfriend went to the police and were themselves promptly arrested for “illegal drinking” and having sex outside of marriage.
During the police interview, the woman admitted to sharing a hotel room with her 44-year-old fiancé and sharing a few drinks in celebration of their upcoming marriage. The couple is facing a six-year charge on the sex allegation alone.
The rape occurred at the Dubai Marina’s Address Hotel after the waiter followed the woman to the Ladies Room. Her fiancé is said to have been unaware of the attack and helped her to their room, where they slept until the next day. It was then that she reported the rape.
We have seen other women flogged for drinking a beer in public under Sharia law, here. We have also seen shocking mistreatment of rape victims and even tacit support for rapists under Sharia law, here and here and here and here and here.
For the full story, click here.
Considering that Dubai is an emerging economy that is shifting it’s focus on tourism and international relations to sustain itself after the Oil Wells dry up it strikes me as odd that they take this position. Especially given the international attention it is inclined to produce.
One thing that is odd about this case (aside from the obvious fact that the woman is charged because she was raped) is the fact that her sexual relations with her Fiance while NOT in Dubai is somehow called into question. Even if you settle yourself on the idea that she should follow the laws of the land she is in, would anyone expect to be charged for having sex in a committed relationship in Britain or America upon entry to another country?
Another problem with this is that not every Religion even has Marriage. Pagan hand-fasting, for example, is like Marriage but have it annual an “renewal” and, unless a Marriage paper is signed at the same time. Since many couples choose not to have it recognized as a marriage because of the renewal aspect, it is generally not recognized as legal. Therefore if you are hand-fasted you are always having sex outside of Marriage.
And what about the more obvious case of Domestic Partnerships with Same-Sex couples? Even some disabled couples of opposite gender rely on Domestic Partnerships because of Marriage Penalties.
All these questions are raised by the part of the case that has less attention being given to it.
Of course, the idea that a woman is charged because she is raped isn’t all that surprising. It is, after all, written into Christian Doctrine under Deuteronomy that if a woman is raped she should be stoned to death. Still horribly wrong, though not surprising.
I think an appropriate response would be to require all Travel Agents or airlines booking flights to Dubai to inform women: “If you are raped in the course of your visit you can go to jail for having sex outside of marriage” – I think if such was passed into law that airlines MUST say this to people at the time tickets are bought it might encourage Dubai to change their own laws regarding the matter.
WHEN IN ROME DO AS THE ROMANS, WHATS SO DIFFICULT ABOUT THAT ? SHE IS A PAKISTANIAN GIRL, SHE KNOWS BETTER ( MORE ) HELLO
unlike the bullshit north american police institutions, dubai police actually investigated the rape claim, and based on CCTV footage, NO WAITER followed the whore into the bathroom.
She cheated on her husband (she was married nov 2009), and when she was about to get caught she claimed that she was raped (because, as we all know, many women claim to be raped if they willingly get drunk and willingly have sex with someone).
Western police agencies should learn something from Dubai’s police: do not believe what someone says. Do an investigation first: women DO lie, just like men.
What did the waiter get for entering the ladies’…. a stoning to death?
That is not just disgusting but scary. Totally strange people and laws there. I am going to work in Dubai for some months from january 25th in Armani’s hotel in Burj Khalifa. So I will see 🙂 I will be a waiter but I swear I will not be raping English women 😀
I guess if you are going to rape a woman, do it in a country like this. That way the old “she made me do it” defense may just work.
700 AD? more like 30,000 BC.
ET Spoon
Say what you will about Christians and Jews-I bet these two would like a good shunning about now.
At least her fiance didn’t buy her a teddy bear named “Mohammed” for the hat-trick.
Buddha has it right. However, someone needs to save us from the fundamentalist (fools) of the world, who cause most of its strife.
From a Western perspective fundamentalist Islamic sharia law seems to encourage sexual repression and hostility toward women and homosexuals.
This is not letting fundamentalist Judaism or Christianity off the hook by any means. But in those two monotheistic traditions there has developed over the centuries a countervailing liberal, humanistic theology, something which seems lacking as yet in Islam.
Dubai is a house of cards built with slave labor and funded by the Arabs own home-grown Ponzi scheme. One day it will all be reclaimed by the desert and the sea. And sooner than they think.
Absolutely Disguisting!!!
I live in a city which houses several thousand criminals, many of whom are sex offenders, within the walls of thier 7 federal correctional institutions. None of which are for women. I suspect those tables would be turned in Dubai!
Yet but 1 more reason that I am thankful for being a Westerner!!!
Sharia law, coming to your local theater’s near you.
This is unduly unfair. This came out of the article and is bull shit:
“Medics were said to have shunned rape case procedures – but made sure they obtained a blood sample from the woman to prove she had been drinking.”
Her attacker, who is understood to be Syrian, is believed to have denied rape.
He claimed the Briton consented but has also been charged with “illegal sex”.
Did Joe move from Arizona?