Saudi Virtue

The BBC wrote about the outrage of human rights groups when charges against a Saudi couple for, amongst other things, tying their maid up outside for a month with and leaving her without food for some time were dropped. This came in after a see-saw of court rulings that at one point had the maid sentenced to 79 lashes for falsely accusing her employers. The abuse was so bad that she lost several digits to gangrene, so its not like the case was hard to prove.

While such abuse is certainly not widespread, it is also not unheard-of in Saudi and the Gulf in general. As I've said elsewhere, it astounds me that, in a culture where dressing provocatively is haram, there is not a greater outcry against domestic abuse of all kinds.