Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Al-Razine, Hanging Judge


LET'S SEE, GIRLS, SHOULD WE GET A BLACK ONE OR A BLACK ONE?

I romanticize about the Old West. I like to read about it; I like to watch movies about it, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" being my favorite; I like to fantasize about being there watching it all...from an air-conditioned RV...oh, yes, and be invisible, too. Too damn dangerous to really BE there. There is no doubt that it was tough times all around, and that's where law enforcement people like Isaac Parker of Ft. Smioth, Arkansas, and Roy Bean of Langtry, Texas, come into this story. Both were famous (or notorious, depending) judges in those times, and both were notorious (or famous) for dispensing quick justice: Parker at the end of a rope, and Bean at the end of the bar where he'd accept the fine and put it in his pocket. While Bean didn't particularly like to hang men as Smith did (Smith is purported to have hanged 88 offenders during his time at the (legal) bar, while Bean only sentenced two to hang and let them both escape). Bean is noted to have said, "Hang 'em first and try 'em later." As you can see based on his record of actual hangings, fact and fiction are somewhat intermingled. Anyway, that brings us to fact that just SOUNDS like fiction in Saudi Arabian justice.
You may have read about the infamous (or famous) judge who, last week finally rescinded his order that an 8-year-old girl remain wedded to her 47-year-old husband, despite the mother's (and supposedly the girl's) pleas to be granted a divorce. The barrister relented only after a huge international storm over women's rights erupted like Vesuvius on Pompeii. But wait, it gets worse.
Now, Judge Hamad Al-Razine has handed down a legal opinion that it is totally acceptable for husbands to slap their wives around if, in the husband's opinion, they spend too much money! The judge offered this as an example:
If a man gives his wife the equivalent of $320 to buy an abaya (see women wearing them in photo) used to cover herself in solid black cloth in one of the hottest places on the planet, and she spends as much as $240 for a brand name garment, the husband is allowed to whack her about for "spending lavishly." What? She's supposed to go to Wal-Mart in Saudi Arabia?
The judge feels such punishment is acceptable because of the latest trend in which Saudi women engage in "indecent behavior (in an abaya?) and use of offensive language against their husbands." Damn right! I would, too! But, then again, this is a country where women are not allowed to drive, either.
The Old West is alive and functioning in the MidEast.
I don't even want to be there at all, air-conditioned, invisible RV or not.

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