The defense…a woman’s word is half that of a man.
The court of cassation has upheld the death sentence for an Emirati who killed his friend in 2009.
The sentence was already upheld twice by the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeals. Now President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, must approve the ruling for the execution order to be carried out, reported 'The National'.
AS, was 19 years old when he shot and killed his classmate, RAS, 17, in a dispute over a woman in Musala Al Eid in Abu Dhabi on Januray 19, 2009.
The two men met on the day of the killing near Marina Mall where they were joined by a female Emirati friend and two other male friends. Then they drove towards the Musala Al Eid area when AS pointed a gun at the female friend, who ran away. He followed her and convinced her he was joking. When she returned, AS shot RAS in the back of the head. AS claimed he fired in self-defence after RAS pulled out a pocketknife.
Defence lawyers denied the killing was premeditated and questioned the woman’s integrity as a witness. The lawyers also argued that their client should not receive the death sentence because the main witness was a woman and her testimony was insufficient because Islamic law required two male witnesses, or at least one male and two females, in murder cases.
One of the man’s two lawyers told the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance in August 2009. “The testimony of women is not acceptable when it comes to blood,”
Seriously, there are actually people in the USA who believe that one day we will fall under this Sharia law...then someone reminds them that the USA does have more smart people than scared people. Hoping the Arabians get their smarts on, too.
Saudi spinsters or mixed marriage?
By Nadim Kawach Published Saturday, January 22, 2011
Saudi Arabia is considering enactment of a legislation to ease curbs on mixed marriage and encourage local women to have foreign spouses following a surge in the number of spinsters, officials have said.
The Shura council (the Gulf kingdom’s appointed parliament) is studying a draft law to end long-standing restrictions on mixed marriage that has drawn criticism from officials and tribal leaders over the past years.
The draft law, studied by the Shura’s Social Committee, is considered a policy turnaround in the conservative Muslim nation and reverses recent official proposals to introduce tougher curbs on mixed marriage.
“We are studying the law which will encourage Saudi women to have foreign husbands according to regulations that will fully guarantee their rights,” said Abdul Rahman Suwailim, a member of the Social Committee.
“The law is still under consideration and we are working to ensure it will be comprehensive…we will publicize the draft law once it is completed,” he said, quoted by the Saudi Arabic language daily 'Shams'.
Suwailim said the draft law was prompted by a surge in the number of spinsters in Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world’s oil basin.
“Spinsterhood is a worrying phenomenon in the kingdom…we are studying this problem and will publish full details about it soon,” he said.
Citing private statistics, Shams said Saudi Arabia had around 1.8 million unmarried national women above 30 years old and that their number could exceed four million in the next four years.
It attributed the problem to the fact that many Saudi men prefer foreign wives despite the existing curbs due to the high wedding expenses and dowries demanded by national spouses.
Another reason is the high divorce rate among Saudis, standing at 18,000 cases in 2010, nearly 30 per cent of the total 60,000 marriages last year.
The new draft law is a reversal of a recent tendency by Riyadh to introduce harsher laws against mixed marriage. The kingdom, which controls over 20 per cent of the world’s oil, already enforces controls governing the marriage of Saudis with foreigners.
According to the Saudi media, the Shura considered a draft law in 2010 to impose a fine of up to SR100,000 (Dh99,000) and other penalties against Saudis who have foreign spouses. The law was to be ratified by the Monarch.
The newspapers said the draft law faced reservations from the country’s Human Rights Commission, which has demanded the cancellation of the proposal to deprive those involved in mixed marriage from government loans because such a move will also affect the relatives of the spouse.
Unusually odd problems can have the simplest solutions.
Love hurts
When a newly-engaged Saudi decided to visit his fiancé at home after missing her, the last thing he had apparently thought about it was to get a big smack from her family.
A few minutes after a warm meeting with his would-be wife at the sitting room in her house in the western town of Taif, her father and six of his sons stormed in and chased their would-be in-law out.
The frightened man had no choice but to escape into the toilet and lock himself in. There, he phoned the police with his mobile and begged them to come fast before it is too late.
But it was too late indeed. The attackers succeeded in smashing the toilet’s door and pulling the Romeo out.
“They used their fists, legs and sticks to give him a big smack, inflicting severe injuries on him before the police arrived,” Sabq Arabic language newspaper reported on Tuesday.
“He was hospitalised for treatment of injuries to his head and body…police arrested the father and two sons while four others managed to flee police are still searching for them.”
The paper said the father claimed that they mistook his daughter’s fiancé for a stranger. It did not make clear if the smacked Romeo would still stick to his fiancé.
Oh that just sounds like an old fashioned desert Arab bachelor party...
Wives…beware of joking with husbands
Husband marries again after wife texts break-up message
A Saudi woman who wanted to joke with her husband got the shock of her life when she learned her joke has only made him marry again.
The unidentified wife wanted to wish her husband a happy new Muslim Hijri year but decided to mix the greeting with a heavy joke.
“She texted his mobile saying ‘I am leaving and you won’t see my face again…happy new year,” Aljazeera daily said on Tuesday.
“Her husband, who works far away, thought she was serious…he consulted with friends, who advised him to get married again….he listened to them and married…a few days later, his first wife phoned him to make sure he is ok only to find out what he has done…she was shocked and told him she was just joking.”
But the husband replied that he was not joking, the paper added, without identify the couple, who live in the central town of Onaiza
That's not helping the spinster/unmarried women problem. Time to dump the Sharia laughing law, too.
Court annuls marriage of 'unoriginal' husband
By Staff Published Friday, January 21, 2011
A Saudi court annulled a marriage of a local couple after the bride’s cousin objected on the grounds the husband is not original, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom reported on Friday.
The bride’s parents in the central town of Madina refused pleas by her cousin to reject the bridegroom and went ahead with the marriage, Sharq daily said.
“The marriage was done without the cousin’s knowledge, prompting him to go to court on the grounds the bridegroom is not original,” the paper said.
“The judge supported his plea and abolished the marriage, saying it was not based on compatibility of relationships.”
The paper did not elaborate but most Saudi families prefer their daughter to marry from their own tribe.
Still laughing....
Bridegroom turns out to be mentally ill
By Staff Published Sunday, January 23, 2011
A Saudi bride who waited impatiently to see her bridegroom got the shock of her life when he walked in for the wedding clutching his father’s hand like a child. Only then she knew he was a mentally retarded person.
The bride, in her 20s, burst into crying and quickly asked for a divorce as hundreds of guests stared in disbelief at the bridegroom who the bride met for the first time, the Arabic language Sharq newspaper reported from the eastern province of Ihsaa on Sunday.
“Her father could not ask about the bridegroom before marriage as he was in jail… her mother was also unable to see him as she was ill,” the paper said.
“When she saw the bridegroom holding his father’s hand like a child, she started to cry hysterically… when she came round, she asked for divorce,” the paper added, without saying whether she was divorced.
Very interesting news stories.
Man beats wife after delivering girl
By Staff Published Thursday, January 27, 2011
An Arab expatriate in Saudi Arabia stormed into the gynecology section in a hospital, woke up his wife and beat her up for delivering a baby girl, newspapers reported on Thursday.The unnamed husband was later overpowered and taken out by staff members and security at the hospital in the central town of Makkah.
He then accused the hospital of swapping his baby as his wife had told him previous x-rays had shown she was pregnant with a boy. But doctors tried to calm him down and told him x-rays are not always accurate in identifying the sex of the baby.
4 million and one possible Saudi spinsters.
And you all know how I love my stories of the Jinn
Genies blamed for girl’s disappearance
By Staff Published Thursday, February 10, 2011
After a visit to Koran reciters, she had to be carried out as she appeared to be in a trance. A Yemeni girl has been missing for nearly a month in Saudi Arabia and her family believe she could have been snatched by jinn (genies), a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The 23-year-old girl stepped out of her house in a mountainous village near the western town of Taif and never returned, prompting a massive police search campaign, Sabq Arabic language daily said.
“Some people told police they saw her walking on a hill not far from her house then vanished again,” the paper said.
“Her brothers and some residents in the village said she sometimes appears at night and then suddenly disappears…they told police that they believe she has been haunted and taken by jinn.”
The paper quoted her brother, Ahmed Ali, as saying his sister ran away from home a year ago but was found at another house on the same day. He said his sister had been nervous and moody but had no problems with the family just before she vanished again.
“On that day, she was with my other sisters washing in the second floor of the house…she then went down to the ground floor…my sisters waited for her but she never came back,” he said.
“Before she vanished, we used to take her to some Koran reciters and scholars…she used to walk into their places but we had to carry her on our way out as she appeared to be in a trance…a red fluid sometimes oozed out of her ears and noses…it was not blood and it had a strange smell…some scholars told us that she is haunted and others said she is under jinn guardianship.”
Gotta wonder why the Jinn only take females from Saudi Arabia...perhaps they are feminist Jinn.