Woman in Saudi Arabia Beheaded for Witchcraft
On Monday, a woman in Saudi Arabia was taken to the guillotine and beheaded for practicing witchcraft and sorcery. In the extremely conservative state of Saudi Arabia, sorcery, witchcraft, and blasphemy are all considered crimes that are punishable by death. Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was executed for having ”committed the practice of witchcraft and sorcery.”
This prompted Amnesty International to step in and put a halt to the executions there as this was one of 79 in Saudi Arabia this year, with at least 27 in 2010. Not only have there been this many executions in 2011, there have been several of its kind in recent months according to Amnesty. In a statement on Monday, the human rights group said that the beheading was “deeply shocking”, and that it ”highlights the urgent need for a halt in executions in Saudi Arabia.”
“While we don’t know the details of the acts which the authorities accused Amina of committing, the charge of sorcery has often been used in Saudi Arabia to punish people, generally after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s interim director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.
This case is not the first execution on the basis of ‘sorcery’ and ‘witchcraft’ to receive such huge media attention. Back in 2008, a Lebanese TV host named Ali Hussain Sibat was charged with sorcery while on a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Charged and sentenced to death the next year in 2009, Sibat still remains in prison.
It is very sad to hear about a society that still has the same principles as a medieval community after hundreds of years of advancement in not only moral principles, but in knowledge and technology. It seems that the accusations made in Saudi Arabia are just reasons to punish people, giving them zero human rights. I think we all hope that Amnesty International and similar activist groups can make a big impact on helping progress kingdoms such as Saudi Arabia.
