Saudi Arabia sentences widow, 75, to 40 lashes after she allows two men into her home to bring her bread



An unidentified woman wears a niqab (file photo). Saudi Arabia's strict religious laws are especially hard on women

A Saudi Arabian widow aged 75 has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in prison for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread.

Khamisa Sawadi, a Syrian who was married to a Saudi, breached rules barring women from meeting with male non-relatives, a court ruled.

The two men, including Sawadi's late husband's nephew Fahd al-Anzi, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes.

Mrs Sawadi argued she saw 24-year-old al-Anzi as a son and even breast-fed him when he was a baby.

But the court, which had acted following a tip-off from al-Anzi's father, dismissed her evidence.



In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers.

Mrs Sawadi's lawyer, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, told the media Mrs Sawadi, who is not yet serving her sentence, plans to appeal.

The case has sparked further criticism of the religious police and judiciary in Saudi Arabia, which many feel exploit their mandate to interfere in people's lives.

'How can a verdict be issued based on suspicion?' Saudi doctor and columnist Laila Ahmed al-Ahdab wrote in newspaper Al-Watan yesterday. 'A group of people are misusing religion to serve their own interests.'



The court verdict read: 'Because she said she doesn't have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed.'



Sawadi commonly asked her neighbours for help after her husband died, said Saudi journalist Bandar al-Ammar, who reported the story for Al-Watan.

In a recent article, he wrote that he felt the need to report the case 'so everybody knows to what degree we have reached.'

The woman's lawyer, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said yesterday that he plans to appeal the verdict, which also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her prison term.



He declined to provide more details and said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media.

Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling and women from driving. The playing of music, dancing and many movies also are a concern for hard-liners who believe they violate religious and moral values.

A special police unit called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice enforces these laws, patrolling public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, sexes don't mix, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque to worship.

But criticism of the religious police and judiciary has been growing in Saudi, where many say they exploit their broad mandate to interfere in people's lives.

Last month, the Saudi king dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing of TV network owners that broadcast 'immoral content' - as part of a shake-up signalling an effort to weaken the kingdom's hard-line Sunni Muslim establishment.

An Iranian woman living in Spain who was disfigured and blinded by a man in Iran has said she welcomes a Tehran court ruling that awards her eye-for-eye justice against her assailant.

'The person who did this deserves to go through the same suffering. Only this way will he understand my pain,' Ameneh Bahrami told daily newspaper ABC.

'My intention is to ask for the application of the law not just for revenge but also so that no other woman will have to go through this. It is to set an example,' the 30-year-old added.

In November an Iranian court ruled that the man - identified only as Majid - who admitted blinding Bahrami in 2004 by throwing acid in her face because she rejected his marriage request should also be blinded with acid based on the Islamic law system of 'eye-for-an-eye' retribution.