SAUDI RAPE/ LASHING CASE PROVOKES CALLS FOR REFORMS Anyone taking bets that this will happen? Or are we going to have another spate of fatwahs declared again those taking a stand? By RASHEED ABOU-ALSAMH The case of a 20-year-old woman who was sentenced to be lashed after pressing charges against seven men who raped her and a male companion has provoked a rare and angry public debate in Saudi Arabia, leading to renewed calls for reform of the Saudi judicial system. The woman, known here only as the Qatif girl because she comes from the Eastern town of that name, was initially sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone with a man to whom she was not married. Her outspoken human rights lawyer appealed the sentence and brought down the wrath of the court, which doubled the woman’s sentence and stripped her lawyer of his license to practice. The case is now being appealed to the kingdom’s highest court. Human rights activists said the treatment of the woman, the man who was raped with her and ...