Rape in Saudi Arabia is regulated by Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Sharia law , under which someone convicted of the criminal offense of rape can be sentenced to a variety of punishments, ranging from flogging to execution. As of , Saudi Arabia reported 0. Rape is regarded as a hudud crime by the Judges of Saudi Arabia which are viewed as the ordinances of God as per Islam and have fixed punishments derived from Islamic sources. A Saudi fatwa stipulates that offenses of sexual honour should be covered by hirabah brigandage or highway robbery a hadd crime which is an unusual interpretation and departs from classical Islamic jurisprudence.
In Saudi Arabia, pregnancy can be used as evidence of sex having occurred and women who report rape or sexual violence can be deemed to have confessed to unlawful sex zina and be prosecuted and be punished by corporal punishments which can include punishments like floggings and even stoning.
Human Rights Watch has investigated the situation, and their report concludes that a rape victim may be punished when they speak out against the crime.
In one case, the victim's sentence was doubled for speaking out, and the court also harassed the victim's lawyer, going so far as to confiscate his professional licence. However, it has also been acknowledged that Shariah law, which punishes rapists, [ 9 ] serves as the basis of the country's legal system. In , the Saudi Gazette reported that a year-old unmarried woman was sentenced to one year in prison and lashes for adultery after the judge refused to believe that she was raped.
This woman had been gang-raped, became pregnant, and had tried unsuccessfully to abort the fetus. The flogging was postponed until after the delivery. The sentences for rape cases are also extremely unbalanced in Saudi Arabia. For example, in February , a Saudi preacher raped, tortured, and murdered his five-year-old daughter.
