Saudi Arabia publicly flogged blogger and activist Badawi accused of 'insulting Islam.

Saudi Arabia publicly flogged blogger and activist accused of 'insulting Islam, Badawi is due to receive 50 lashes every Friday for 20 weeks.(Independent).

Saudi Arabia has been condemned for publicly flogging liberal blogger and activist Raif Badawi, who was accused of insulting Islam.

Amnesty International confirmed to The Independent that Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, received the first round of 50 in a public flogging after Friday prayers, which it says continue every Friday for 20 weeks.

A witness told the human rights organisation that Badawi was removed from a bus in shackles and taken to a public square in front of the al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah. He was then flogged in front of a crowd and security guards for 15 minutes, before being put back on the bus and driven away.

Amnesty says Badawi, who started the "Free Saudi Liberals" website, was arrested in June 2012 for creating an online forum for public debate and over accusations that he insulted Islam. His website has also been shut down.

Badawi was originally sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes in July last year, but an appeals court overturned the sentence and ordered a retrial - which then earned him a more severe sentence of 1,000 lashes and ten years in prison. Read the full story here.

"Sharia Law" - 15 year old Maldives girl faces flogging after alleged rape by her Step - Father.

"Sharia Law" - 15 year old Maldives girl faces flogging after alleged rape by her Step - Father.(E24/7).A 15-year-old in the Maldives whose father is accused of repeatedly raping her and killing the resulting baby risks being flogged for "fornication" with another man under the nation's strict Islamic law, a police source said on Monday.
In the course of inquiries into the rape case, investigators say they unearthed evidence of the girl having had consensual sex with another man, which is an offence in the Indian Ocean holiday destination, the source told AFP.
Women, including minors, having consensual sex outside marriage can be charged in the Maldives, where convicts can be publicly flogged. Minors receive the punishment when they reach 18, the age of majority.
The child's step-father is accused by police of repeatedly raping the girl and fathering a child by her which he subsequently murdered. The girl's mother has been charged with helping dispose of the infant's body, police said.
"We completed the investigation (into the murder of the infant) and gave a report to the prosecutor general's office," Maldivian police spokesman Hassan Haneef told AFP by telephone.
He declined to give details saying that Maldivian common law did not allow the discussion of any case involving a minor.
The local Haveeru newspaper quoted an unnamed official from the prosecutor's office saying that the fornication charge was unrelated to the rape which had been separately dealt with.
The legal system of the Maldives, a nation of 330,000 Muslims known for its coral-fringed islands and sandy beaches, has elements of Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law.
The country carries out the flogging of women despite calls from the UN Human Rights Council to drop the practice.
In September, a Maldivian court ordered a public flogging for a 16-year-old girl who confessed to having pre-marital sex. Her 29-year-old lover was sentenced to 10 years in prison.Hmmmm.....The future does not belong......Read the full story here.

"Real Saudi housewives" - Saudi woman sentenced to 50 lashes, for swearing at her friend in text message.

                                                            Woman flogged in Iran.


"Real Saudi housewives"- Saudi woman sentenced to 50 lashes, for swearing at her friend in text message.(E24/7).A Saudi court sentenced a local woman to 50 lashes for swearing at her friend following an argument, a newspaper reported on Monday. The two Saudi women, aged 33 and 31 years, had decided to go out with their children for a week end night but differed on where to go. “An argument ensued and the two women decided to split…one of them later sent a text to her friend's mobile phone swearing at her,” Kabar daily said. “The other woman went to court and showed the judge the message…although that woman said she was joking, the court ordered her lashed 50 times.” Kabar said the court gave the sentenced woman the right to appeal the verdict.Hmmmm........."Real Saudi housewives".Read the full story here.