Woman Executed in Saudi Arabia for "Witchcraft"

[Altair]

This no doubt has little to do with the various understandings of witchcraft in Western neopagan circles. That doesn't make it any less appalling.

From Yahoo.com news:

Amnesty says Saudi beheading for sorcery "shocking"

DUBAI (Reuters) - Rights group Amnesty International has described as "deeply shocking" Saudi Arabia's beheading of a woman convicted on charges of "sorcery and witchcraft," saying it underlined the urgent need to end executions in the kingdom.

http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-says-saudi-beheading-sorcery-shocking-091838743.html

Saudi Arabia was already high on my list of places not to visit, but this knocks it up a few notches higher.

[RandallS]

Saudi Arabia was already high on my list of places not to visit, but this knocks it up a few notches higher.

This.

[sailor]

Amnesty says Saudi beheading for sorcery "shocking"

 
yes, shocking it was so merciful. I'd have thought the punishment for witchcraft would be a more grisly form of death.

[victoreia]

Saudi Arabia was already high on my list of places not to visit, but this knocks it up a few notches higher.

 
Definitely on my "to be avoided" list.

[sailor]

Definitely on my "to be avoided" list.

 
To late for me. Already been there a couple of times.

[mandrina]

To late for me. Already been there a couple of times.

 
witchcraft probably isn't your problem.  How do they feel about american jews?

[sailor]

witchcraft probably isn't your problem.  How do they feel about american jews?

 
They didn't ask.  They were more interested in watching the American R rated sexy films while we took on fuel.

[Miss]

This no doubt has little to do with the various understandings of witchcraft in Western neopagan circles. That doesn't make it any less appalling.

From Yahoo.com news:

Amnesty says Saudi beheading for sorcery "shocking"




http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-says-saudi-beheading-sorcery-shocking-091838743.html

Saudi Arabia was already high on my list of places not to visit, but this knocks it up a few notches higher.

 
I read somewhere she was charging ridiculous fees for phony services. If that was the case, she should have gotten in trouble. Putting her to death though? Wow.

I'm very grateful as a woman to not have had the misfortune of being born in a repressive country.

[victoreia]

I'm very grateful as a woman to not have had the misfortune of being born in a repressive country.

 
You and me, both!!

[Altair]

They didn't ask.  They were more interested in watching the American R rated sexy films while we took on fuel.

 
That ties into something I read that I think is very accurate and highly enlightening about many Islamic cultures: that they're "shame" cultures, vs. Western "guilt" cultures. In the West, it's not so much whether you do something that others perceive as wrong, but rather whether you feel guilty about it, that guides behavior. In shame cultures, as long as the proscribed behavior remains private, it's OK; but if knowledge of these acts become public, the judgment of society is swift and merciless.

So in Saudi Arabia watching racy American movies on the sly is fine, but such movies will not be permitted openly in theaters. I hear that in much of the Arab world, folks have well-stocked liquor cabinets tucked away in the privacy of their home, even though alcohol is forbidden by law; but public outlets for drinking--a liquor store or bar--are out of the question.

Goes a long way towards explaining where "honor killings" and such crap comes from.

Someone smack me down if I'm wrong or oversimplifying.

[sailor]

That ties into something I read that I think is very accurate and highly enlightening about many Islamic cultures: that they're "shame" cultures, vs. Western "guilt" cultures. In the West, it's not so much whether you do something that others perceive as wrong, but rather whether you feel guilty about it, that guides behavior. In shame cultures, as long as the proscribed behavior remains private, it's OK; but if knowledge of these acts become public, the judgment of society is swift and merciless.

So in Saudi Arabia watching racy American movies on the sly is fine, but such movies will not be permitted openly in theaters. I hear that in much of the Arab world, folks have well-stocked liquor cabinets tucked away in the privacy of their home, even though alcohol is forbidden by law; but public outlets for drinking--a liquor store or bar--are out of the question.

Goes a long way towards explaining where "honor killings" and such crap comes from.

Someone smack me down if I'm wrong or oversimplifying.

 
Catja can probably explain it better but, ...

In a shame culture, to use your alcohol example, a person's son drinking in private can feel no guilt or shame if nobody outside the immediate family would know about it. They have done nothing wrong so long as nobody else knows about.

If somebody outside the family found out about it, they would have to punish the son (or kill the daughter) for bringing shame.  If it was another family's child, they'd have no problem helping to punish the other kid, even if their child got rip roaring drunk in private every night.

In the West, ie guilt cultures, they would feel guilty for having broken the mores.  


http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/08/shame-arab-psyche-and-islam.html

pretty good little chart showing how people react in each culture to accusations of breaking mores.

[Skyth]

http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/08/shame-arab-psyche-and-islam.html

pretty good little chart showing how people react in each culture to accusations of breaking mores.

 
The page seems a little biased against Islam/Arabs.  Though maybe the advertisement to never forget what arabs did to us lead me to that...

[Altair]

The page seems a little biased against Islam/Arabs.  Though maybe the advertisement to never forget what arabs did to us lead me to that...

 
Oh, the irony! The ad that popped up in the middle of your post, Skyth, was for Lowe's Home Improvement--which at the moment is justifiably getting its butt kicked in the court of public opinion for anti-Muslim bigotry!

Lowe's recently kowtowwed to pressure from a right-wing fringe group by pulling its ads from a show called All-American Muslim (a reality show that the fringe group is protesting because it portrays Muslim Americans positively, which the fringe group says isn't accurate!)

[SatSekhem]

I'm very grateful as a woman to not have had the misfortune of being born in a repressive country.

 
This.

[Juniperberry]

]

...

 
I read in the news that this was an extreme punishment for the charge, but that the government is using those charges to punish hidden crimes ie; freedom of speech issues.