Woman Will Be Lashed For Driving

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers.

The woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July.

Women2drive, which campaigns for women to be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, says she has already lodged an appeal.

The sentence comes two days after the Saudi leader King Abdullah announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015.

It has been established that the King's decree allowing women to vote is a hollow joke.  It isn't bound by law so it can be repealed at any time, and the ability to vote is a farce in a country where underground deals determine who is in charge.  Elections are for show, so giving women that right is an insult when they are not able to walk or drive without an escort.  It's amazing to me that in our progressive time, women are still treated so badly in other places.  Again, we see reports of women being treated as slaves or property, forced through life with no choices or hope of change.  Women are forced to live a life of servitude, while their husbands answer to nobody for how they treat another human being.

This must be stopped.  Freedom to walk or drive is about as basic as it gets.  What does it matter if they can vote, if they must have a male relative drive them down there?  What good is it to be born in a world where you can never show your face or drive without an escort?

This will stain my entire day.  My heart goes out to that poor woman, ten lashes will be agonizing, and the scars will haunt her forever.