I thought I’d seen all the legal backwardness the world had to offer, but this just about obliterated my system of thought, wreaking as much internal damage as any garden-variety machete-wielding water buffalo could ever manage. Here I am, worrying about representation and the economy, and halfway across the world, a Saudi court punishes the victim of a crime because she was trying to meet with her lawyer — on the grounds that she’s a woman, and under the Saudi interpretation of Islamic law, she should not meet with men outside of her family. I find it to be all sorts of ridiculous that sexism still exists after thousands of years of human civilization, growth, and evolution, and that Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s richest countries, still has these sorts of policies towards women. And it’s completely illogical. Other nations have had women leaders — why can’t Saudi Arabia even let its women have basic legal rights? Or basic human rights for that matter? It’s not even a religious issue — it’s caused by terrible, terrible judgment.

I think that’s worse than the fact that this woman has been accused of a “crime” (or that she was held partly responsible for her own assault) at all is the fact that the punishment includes lashes (yes, like whipping — both inhumane and outdated. They might as well have rolled out a pillory or something, but I don’t know that it could get much worse than a whipping.) and a prison sentence. And the men who assaulted her get away with relatively short prison sentences. I can’t imagine a more bleak situation for this poor woman. Not only has she been humiliated and absolutely crushed, but her government — her own people — are punishing her because she sought to defend herself. What a terrible day for the rule of law.

And not surprisingly, the U.S. State Department refused to offer any condemnation of the event. How much more cowardly can we possibly be? Not that I expected much more.