SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Saudi Arabia’s human rights record has long been the subject of widespread condemnation by rights groups. Human rights abuses that have resulted from Saudi clerics’ conservative interpretation of Islamic law are well-documented. The country routinely carries out gruesome public beheadings of convicted criminals. Other punishments include death by stoning, public floggings, and amputations of limbs. International criticism of Saudi Arabia’s rights record reached a crescendo in 2002, when religious police in Mecca prevented a group of schoolgirls from leaving a burning dormitory because they were improperly dressed. Fifteen girls died in the blaze. Similarly Saudia has punished of lashes to a famous blogger Raif Badawi, who has been put behind bars since long time. Similarly A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a woman to 70 lashes after she allegedly insulted a man on the messaging service WhatsApp.
Saudis are increasingly and openly discussing government affairs on Twitter and Facebook-a ban on women driving, arbitrary detention of peaceful dissidents and terror suspects, and corruption, among others-but the government in 2011 banned public protests, tightened press laws, and arrested scores of peaceful rights advocates and protesters. Saudi Arabia struggles with a poorly defined and nontransparent justice system based on religion that metes out draconian sentences. Women and minority Shia citizens face systematic discrimination. Immigration and labor restrictions on migrant workers facilitate widespread abuse. Western countries remained largely silent about poor rights conditions in the kingdom which shows double standards of West.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
