Academia, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Did Harvard’s New Saudi Scholar Try To Have Women Flogged For Revealing Her Affair?

Drhayatsindi220px-Harvard_Wreath_Logo_1.svgDr. Hayat Sindi is a Saudi Arabian medical scientist and a woman who has earned respect for extraordinary accomplishments in a country that denies women basic liberties. She is not only an award-winning scientist but one of the first female members of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia. Ranked by Arabian Business as the 19th most influential Arab in the world and the ninth most influential Arab woman, it is not surprising that Harvard University has brought her to the country as a visiting scholar. However, a nasty lawsuit in King County has raised deeply disturbing allegations about Sindi’s efforts against women who she accuses of hacking her emails. According to counsel for one of those women, Sindi worked to have another woman flogged for writing on Facebook that she had had an affair with her husband. On the other side is Samia El-Moslimany, a women’s activist and photographer who lives in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, who is fighting to keep Sindi from forcing the disclosure of the women, who would face medieval Sharia justice in Saudi Arabia.

All of this began when El-Moslimany posted statements on social media in 2012 alleging that Sindi had had an affair with her husband. Sindi responded with a Saudi defamation case and, according to an affidavit submitted by El-Moslimany’s lawyer, she wanted El-Moslimany flogged. The effort backfired. A Saudi judge decided last year that El-Moslimany should spend four days in jail for the public defamation while Sindi should spend two months in jail for forming an illicit relationship with El-Moslimany’s husband. Neither has served their sentences.

Sindi however has continued to try to force disclosure of the names of the women commenting on the Internet under the claim that she was hacked. A King County Superior Court judge decided Friday not to sentence a Burien woman to jail or to levy a $500 fine for each day of withholding the names in light of the danger to these women.

Judge Mariane Spearman denied Sindi’s request to hold El-Moslimany in contempt of court because Sindi’s new lawyer could not specify which Facebook comments might be a basis for investigating any of the women.

The idea of a Harvard academic fighting to have women flogged for alleged defamation is deeply troubling. The fact that Saudi Sharia law allows for medieval justice does not excuse a demand for such justice over the exercise of free speech. Even if such speech was defamatory, it should not be a criminal matter subject to flogging. Whatever the truth of the adultery, it should not be relevant to Harvard or anyone else other than those involved in these families. However, flogging for posting matters on the Internet raises significant issues of due process and free speech.

Should Harvard be involved in such dispute when one of its faculty seeks to have women flogged under Sharia law or this is simply a private matter under the laws of another country?

563 thoughts on “Did Harvard’s New Saudi Scholar Try To Have Women Flogged For Revealing Her Affair?”

  1. Happy:

    I forgot to mention the other emotion I experience when I see religion being tossed out there as some antedote for every problem. I think it’s just mystifying that people so willing offer up the only divine thing they possess- their reason- to prostrate themselves before a deity and pray that a serious set of problems will just magically disappear. I truly believe the saying “God helps those who helps themselves” was written by an atheist and should be carved above every church door. That way people might realize it was them all along and alone pushing the grind stone.

  2. Po

    Your attempt at taqiyya. . .which are lies spread to non Muslims by Muslims, to advance the cause of Islam, which are permitted and encouraged by the Koran. . .does not work with me. Muslims, according to Islam, are commanded to kill infidels. Adherents to your faith risk death if they so much as choose to convert. Please, pedal your taqiyya with someone else. Your lies and subterfuge do not work on me.

    1. tellingitlikeitis – it is my personal opinion that po is blogging on behalf of CAIR.

  3. mespo727272

    Tellit:

    I’m exploring your topic in a series on another blog. I call it “Is it time to make fundamentalism a crime?” It’s an interesting issue.

    Mespo – I think that John Hagee and Joseph Lieberman and AIPAC are working on that right now with Christians United for Israel –

  4. And Telling, I heard some crazy “braying” and yelling, crying and gnashing of teeth in the Pentecostal church I grew up in.

  5. And tellingitlikeitis, it’s ok with me if you keep your head. Stay out of Syria, Iraq and Libya. I’d avoid Saudi Arabia too. Egypt Is iffy. Jorden may be safe, despite being Muslim, maybe? If your’re gay stay out of some African Christian countries.

  6. Po:

    Like the Bible, the Q’uran (and its sister the Hadith) keep two sets of books justifying both compassion and violence towards the unfaithful.

  7. Good American Muslims are killing infidels? Whoa! Really? I hadn’t heard, what states are these killings happening in? I’ve heard of an occasional terrorist killing, but I didn’t think terrorists were “good” Muslims.

  8. Tellit:

    I’m exploring your topic in a series on another blog. I call it “Is it time to make fundamentalism a crime?” It’s an interesting issue.

  9. Inga

    I truly believe in freedom of religion, but Islam, is like no other religion that you or I have been raised to accommodate, respect or appreciate. We have been raised to relish in diversity and to show respect to all. Islam commands its adherents to kill all infidels and to wage a Holy War. That is not an exaggeration; that is a basic and fundamental precept in Islam. Islam is, unfortunately, incompatible with a civilized society. . .or at least the type of society in which I would choose to live. My faith does not demand that I kill others who practice a different path; Islam demands it. It is not the BAD Muslims who kill and destroy with abandon. . .to the contrary. . .Muslims who follow the Koran and its teachings. . .GOOD MUSLIMS. . .kill infidels. . .men, women and children. . .wherever they are found. Those of us, who choose not to face Mecca five times a day and bray like a donkey to Allah, need to fight against this evil, not make excuses for it and try to placate its adherents. I’ve grown attached to my head; I’d like to keep it, if that’s ok with you.

  14. Happy:

    I appreciate the sentiment. I really do. And anyone could wrap themselves in your religion of inner spirituality coupled with the orderly God of nature as Spinoza and Einstein did. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about religion with the unerring dogma and stifling rules all managed by an overbearing threat of eternal damnation. Spirituality isn’t the problem; it’s man enforced spirituality from which all the evil flows.

    1. Mespo

      Spirituality isn’t the problem; it’s man enforced spirituality from which all the evil flows.

      I am proud of you Mespo. I am Lucky to find the blog. What are we going to do about it? This evil man enforced and enslavement of spirituality?

  15. Happy, we can’t just assume something is wrong in someone’s life because they don’t see things our way. Don’t make those kinds of assumptions, it’s not fair, don’t be like someone, ok?

  17. Also, tellinglikeitain’t…
    The quran, the ultimate source, says there is no compulsion in religion. There!

  18. Telling…
    since you know so much about Islam, show me where it says that leaving islam is punishable by death.

    Karen, according to your logic, women are safe everywhere but in muslim countries?
    Why does the plight of muslim women matter so to you when the so many more women around the word deal with harsher issues…widows in India and Nepal…. women in orthodox judaism… female excision in Christian countries….
    ——————-
    ““Is the world of Islam limited to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia?”

    I have repeatedly stated that there are moderate Muslims. In fact, many moderate Muslims in America moved here to escape extremism. So, that obviously has answered your question which, for some reason, you keep insisting I have not answered.
    ————————
    Sorry Karen, as usual, you did not answer my question. You offer an answer to something that was not asked, then do A LOT of protesting. A LOT!!!!
    To follow up on your logic, the 4 countries you quoted count 10 % of the muslim population, yet based on what they do in those 4 countries, all Muslims as guilty of the same.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    It is as fallacious as me making the claim that because one Karen is islamophobic, anyone named Karen is also islamophobic. You see how dumb and illogical that would be? And yet that is what you do.

  19. Indeed, Voltaire was right. What is sacred to one certainly may not be sacred to the other. And nothing is sacred enough not to be questioned.

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