Saudi Court Sentences Vctim of Gang Rape to 90 Lashes

The event in question in Saudi Arabia is mostly the result of theocracy, a society ruled by religious bigotry. Fortunately, the US of A is a land of civil law rather than religionists but, much of the world is not.

So in the beginning, you set out to make it as a drama?

I set off to investigate this story with the idea of doing it as a drama, and gradually I realized that something completely different was developing. Where I traveled through the Arab world, the story was celebrated. Everyone had their own version of that story, all very, very different. ... Whoever I spoke to -- whether they were Palestinians, whether they were conservative Saudis, whether they were radicals -- they attached themselves to this princess. She'd become a myth. And they identified with her, and they kind of co-opted her to their cause.

People were discussing things with me about their private lives, about their sexual feelings, about their political frustrations, that they'd never discussed with me before. ... Somehow this princess was sort of like a catalyst. And after thinking about it seriously, I thought, my gosh, this is perhaps an even more interesting story to tell.

Why not do this as a normal documentary?

Because I couldn't have a single interview in it. There was not one person I spoke to, with the exception of a Palestinian family I know very well, who would agree to appear in this film. So it was absolutely understood that "Everything I'm telling you now, Antony, is in confidence. You will never refer to me; you will never expose me, will you?" You couldn't make a documentary. It was impossible. You'd have a whole array of people with their voices distorted and bags on their heads, and that wouldn't make a very good film.

One of the people I spoke to about the princess' story, it was a woman from Jordan who was a university lecturer. And we talked about that story, and it sparked something in her. And for six hours, she talked about her childhood as a girl in Jordan, experiences she'd had with a maid who had set fire to herself when she was pregnant because there was no way to deal with that.

Josephine and I talked for six hours. She got very, very emotional. And that same afternoon, I traveled to Cairo, [Egypt]. When I arrived, there was a telegram from her husband, who said that she'd committed suicide. Now, there was a lot of backstory to that -- her marriage was in trouble -- but I often wonder whether all that emotional stirring that happened as we talked about the princess wasn't in some small, eventful way a contributing factor to her decision she took to take her life.

Saudi Arabia is a culture that until 75 years ago was living in the 12th century. That same culture has had everything it knew turned upside down in the space of a couple of generations. 99.99% of the population have never been in a house let alone lived in one, never even heard of a toilet or running clean water, read a book or attended a classroom.

...It will take time for such a restrictive culture to come to a more equitable way of punishing crime or to realize that women don't deserve to be punished for being victimized.

I would think education would be key over shock and awe. Like Turkey and Iran, I think the more "mingling" that takes place, and the more exposure to outside culture the better as far as bringing them into the current century. It will take education and time.

.......by bringing up the barbarities of our ancestors, I am correct to point out that it's illogical.
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Leftovers of cluster bombs and depleted uranium are barbarities. Our ancestors had little to do with them.
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Nor do the torture paraphernalia in Abu Ghraib.

Furthermore, even if these had been valid compaisons, why would it be necessary every time someone mentions an atrocity by non-Americans to reflexively chime in, "America sucks too?"

"Left over bombs are bad, but not atrocities."

Snort! Lost my coffee over that one.

detano inipo wrote:

.......by bringing up the barbarities of our ancestors, I am correct to point out that it's illogical.
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Leftovers of cluster bombs and depleted uranium are barbarities. Our ancestors had little to do with them.
.
Nor do the torture paraphernalia in Abu Ghraib.

All bad comparisons. Left over bombs are bad, but not atrocities. Most likely every participant in every war since the invention of exposives has had left over bombs.