200 Lashes for a rape victim?

Just another example of Saudi Arabia's backward trends, for all those readers who don't stay on top of their middle east news. The Saudi courts recently upped the punishment for a rape victim to receive 200 lashes. Let me a repeat, a rape VICTIM is handed a jail term and lashing for the circumstances leading up to her rape. What was her crime? Meeting an old friend, an unrelated male, to retrieve some photographs.

The seven males who abducted the two and raped them both initially were sentenced for periods from 10 months to 5 years. After her lawyer contested it, the courts increased their sentences to 2-9 years. Oh, but wait, they increased her sentence to 6 months in jail and 200 lashes. Why? She bothered talking to the media.

Just another instance of how our "ally" Saudi Arabia continues to deny basic human rights to its female citizens. Current rules include a dress code; prohibitions against driving unaccompanied, traveling anywhere unaccompanied, and testifying in court; requirement to have a male's permission for surgery, and inability to vote. Add in the fact that they blatantly support extremist ideology both at home and abroad, you wonder, why again are we so insistent that they're our ally???