Khalid Chraibi - The Girl of Qatif

8/14/2019 Khalid Chraibi - The Girl of Qatif

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The Saudi authorities were perplexed and incensed by such criticisms. As far as

they were concerned, the court sentence against the Girl of Qatif was made in application of

the Shariah as it has traditionally been interpreted in the country, and raised no particular or

unusual issues.

The Saudi Ministry of Justice observed, in a statement, that the girl went out to meet her male

acquaintance without a mahram, a legal guardian, and exchanged with him forbidden affairs

through the illegal khalwa. She knows that khalwa with an unrelated man is forbidden by

Shariah and by doing this she has broken the sacred matrimonial contract. Her punishment

is thus perfectly justified in Islamic law.

But, the Girl of Qatif, her husband and her lawyer questioned several points in the

Ministrys statement, as well as the legal grounds on which the sentence was based.

According to them, the girl had not put herself in this situation of khalwa out of her own freewill. She and the boy who was raped with her had been chatting regularly on the phone for

two years, since they were both 16, but without meeting. Somehow, the boy obtained her

picture. When she got married at age 18, she wanted her picture back, and the boy agreed to

do that, if she met him in his car, in a public mall. After returning her picture to her, the boy

volunteered to drive her home but, on their way, they were overtaken by another car, which

compelled them to stop. They were kidnapped and taken to a deserted place, where the boy

and the girl were separately subjected to a gang-rape.

The girls husband insisted that there was no adultery involved in this case, nor was there any

sexually-oriented activity between the couple in the car. The meeting only took place to allow

the girl to retrieve her picture which, moreover, was harmless and did not show her in anycompromising position. In his opinion, it had been bad judgment on the part of the girl to go

to this meeting, but there was nothing more to it.

The lawyer of the Girl of Qatif, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, argued, for his part, that there

was no khalwa between the girl and the ex-boyfriend, in the legal sense, because they met in

a public place. Moreover, the boy was trying to blackmail the girl with the picture, and she

wanted to retrieve it She was forced to meet him in a "khalwa", which invalidates the rule

of "personal will" in Shariah. As Saudi jurists agree, the legal definition of khalwa doesnt

apply to the situation when a person is in dire need to attend such a meeting, or does so under

duress.

The Saudi judiciary accepted to review the case, but before it began looking into it, Saudi

Arabias King Abdullah decided, on December 17, to pardon the Girl of Qatif, bringing the

dramatic story of this girl to a compassionate ending.

Despite this humane conclusion to the case, many Muslims would agree with

Amnesty International, that the criminalisation of Khalwa is inconsistent with international

human rights standards, in particular, an individuals right to privacy.

Of course, if any human rights organization in the area were to present the political/religious

authorities of the Gulf States with a proposal to suppress any sanctions for khalwa, they


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would reject it out of hand, on the grounds that it was inconsistent with Muslim law. But

this only demonstrates the important differences which continue to exist between Muslim

countries in their interpretation of the prescriptions of the Shariah.

Everybody agrees that there are no Quranic verses which forbid khalwa, or define any

sanction applicable to it. The main text of reference on the subject is a hadith of theMessenger, which states:

'Whosoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him not be alone with a woman who has

not a Mahram (male relative who she cannot marry) with her. Indeed, the third (person) is al-

Shaytan! [Ahmad].

This hadith implies that, when a man and a woman are alone in a secluded place, there may be

temptation lurking. But, at the same time, Islam teaches moral responsibility and individual

accountability, underlining the fact that each person is individually responsible for their

actions before God.

Therefore, in North African countries, for example, the hadith on khalwa is viewed as merely

indicating ethics of conduct, in order to avoid committing sins of the flesh. Some people may

frown on a situation of khalwa but, as long as no fault has been committed there is no reason

to apply any sanction. Punishment is only called for when actions which are forbidden by law

actually take place, such as adultery, prostitution, and the like.

In other countries, such as the Gulf States, the hadith has been interpreted by the ulema as

forbidding khalwa. But, even in that case, the Messenger did not define any punishment to be

applied to those who put themselves in such a situation. It was the ulema, through their own

ijtihad their personal reflection over the centuries, who studied the offence in its various

aspects, defined its nature and decided on the applicable sanctions (under the taazir approach,

in which the judge has latitude to decide on the applicable sanction).

When a case such as that of the Girl of Qatif gains worldwide publicity, most

Muslim people find themselves at a loss to understand why different Muslim countries,

applying the same Islamic law, implement it with such strikingly different results. How can

the same action be a punishable offence that is severely sanctioned in one region, whereas in

another region it is no offence at all, and carries no punishment?

The situation becomes even more perplexing when a Saudi judge explains, in an interview

published by a major Saudi daily newspaper, that the Courts have shown compassion and

pity for the girl (when she was condemned to 90 lashes, later raised to 200 lashes plus 6

months in jail). If that had not been the case, it was his opinion, as a judge with 30 years

experience, that the judges should have condemned the girl of Qatif to death, together with

the other people involved in the case.(1)

One is reminded of Ali ibn Abu Talibs observation that it is human beings (with all their

frailties) who interpret the Shariah. In the Gulf States, personal status law has not yet been

codified into a mudawwana, and both the judges and the people have some difficulty at times,

distinguishing between tribal law and customs and the prescriptions of Islamic law,especially in taazir situations.


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One would think, in these conditions, that there is latitude for change in the judicial systems

view of khalwa in the Gulf States, if the political authorities were inclined to do so. The only

major obstacle to be confronted is the weight of traditions.

Unfortunately, says Suhaila Hammad, a writer who supports womens rights, tradition and

customs control many people here (in Saudi Arabia) and they confuse them with Islamic law.As for the argument that we should introduce womens rights gradually, I say Islam came

1,428 years ago. Are all these centuries not enough to understand it? (2)

Notes:

(1) Okaz newspaper, Nov 27, 2007 : an interview with judge Ibrahim al-Khodhairi (in Arabic)

(2) Heba Saleh, Womens rights: Barrier of silence has been broken, Financial Times, December 4, 2007

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Khalid Chraibi - The Girl of Qatif