Published: November 26, 2007 11:39 am         

Column: U.S. policy for Saudi Arabia -- See no evil

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible — and no one can now doubt the word of America.



— George W. Bush



How nice that Saudi Arabia has decided to honor us with its official presence this week at the Middle Eastern “peace conference” in Annapolis, Md.



I don’t suppose the subject of the Qatif Girl will come up.



In case you have missed this latest example of a United States Ally Behaving Badly — perhaps you’ve been distracted by Pakistan’s Gen. Pervez Musharraf defending democracy with martial law? — let me bring you up to speed.



A year ago, a 19-year-old Saudi Arabian woman/girl was sentenced by an official court to 90 public lashes of a whip. Her crime? Well, you see, the young woman had been kidnapped and gang-raped at knife-point in her hometown of Qatif by seven men who also raped her male companion.



After some of the rapists were convicted and sentenced to whipping and a few years in prison, the young woman was hauled into court for her punishment. She had broken a Saudi law that prohibits females from being alone with any adult male to whom they are not related.



Yes, by all means, please take a moment here to consult your calendar and confirm that we are about to enter the year 2008, not 1308.



When the young woman, whose name is still unpublished, had the temerity to allow her attorney to complain about her sentence to the Saudi news media, the government responded with fury. The teenage victim of gang rape was resentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison.



Lest anyone doubt the reach — and ire — of the Saudi judges, the Qatif Girl’s attorney also was removed from the case, slapped with disciplinary procedures and his license to practice was suspended.



According to Reuters news service, a statement from the Ministry of Justice defended the sanctions against the lawyer because he had “spoken insolently about the judicial system and challenged laws and regulations.”



Would you care to hear the official response from the U.S. State Department to all of this? While spokesman Sean McCormack pronounced the punishment of both client and attorney “relatively astonishing,” he reminded all interested parties:



“This is a part of a judicial procedure overseas in the court of a sovereign country.”



Had McCormack been utterly forthcoming, he would have added, “a sovereign country upon which the United States is so dependent for oil, we repeatedly turn our heads from any and all atrocities its leaders commit.”



Anybody remember the nationality of most of the 19 hijackers from Sept. 11, 2001?



Anybody remember the White House trumpeting the “liberation” of all those burka-bound women in Afghanistan who’d been oppressed by the immoral Taliban until we invaded?



Women are required to wear burkas in Saudi Arabia, too. Head to toe, face covered. They can’t drive themselves to the supermarket or move about in public unless accompanied by a male relative. They are, in every sense of the word, second-class citizens.



Widowed mothers need their son’s written permission to conduct even minor activities. Women cannot apply for passports or government-issued identification cards without a man’s permission and participation. If a woman finds herself in court, as the Qatif Girl did, Allah help her.



In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Wajiha al-Hweider, an international women’s rights activist, described what female Saudis are up against.



“The judge does not have a written law. It is a matter of luck. You are lucky if the judge is a moderate and fears God,” said Hweider.



Because strict Islamic religious law is the only law in Saudi Arabia, all the judges are clergymen. The woman’s male guardian, not the woman, is addressed by the judge or judges. The woman herself is viewed as “part of the property” of the male guardian.



“The woman does not have the right to represent herself in a court. She enters the court covered entirely in black. Some judges do not even allow her to speak,” Hweider said.



This virtually mute and unidentifiable status has led to a fascinating ploy by some unscrupulous Saudi men, the activist said. Bent on forgery, they have taken other women into court to impersonate someone whose money they were after.



“It helped some men in stripping their sisters of inheritance, for example,” Hweider said.



How much more “relatively astonishing” does it have to get for Saudi females before the United States manages a little official outrage? The possibilities are nauseating.



True, Fran Townsend, the president’s adviser on domestic security and anti-terrorism, did tell CNN last week that the Saudi courts’ actions toward the Qatif Girl were “absolutely reprehensible” and beyond any “explaining or justifying.” Too bad Townsend said it right after she announced she was leaving the White House.



News reports indicate the Qatif Girl was in a car in a shopping center parking lot with her unrelated male companion. They were not having sex or necking or even drinking a Coca-Cola. A former suitor, he had a photograph of the young woman’s fully-clothed self that she wanted back because she was engaged to another man.



Besides being kidnapped and gang-raped, the former boyfriend also received a sentence of 90 lashes for “illegal mingling.” The Saudi court said both victims were asking for the attacks.



The Qatif Girl is now married. She and her husband have vowed to appeal the case as far as they can, presumably with a new lawyer who is still licensed and fearless.



When the State Department’s McCormack was asked if his tepid response was due to the impending peace conference in Maryland, he said,no. Agence Presse-France quotes him: “These kinds of decisions are going to have to be decisions that the people of that country — in this case, Saudi Arabia — are going to have to take for themselves.”



Again, McCormack should have added, “If only the woman had been gang-raped in Iraq or Afghanistan. U.S. policy is to make decisions for the people of those countries all the time.”



Stephanie Salter writes for The Tribune Star in Terre Haute, Ind. She can be reached at stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.