Another Saudi Face: TV Presenter Is Beaten Up By Husband

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-16-2004 | Robun Gedye

[blam]

Another Saudi face: TV presenter is beaten up by husband

By Robin Gedye
(Filed: 16/04/2004)

A Saudi television presenter who was beaten unconscious by her husband has allowed pictures of her severely battered face to be published in an attempt to highlight the abuse of women in the kingdom.

Rania al-Baz, who works for Saudi Arabia's state television's Channel One, is having a series of operations for 13 fractures to her face. She said she wanted to break the taboo on domestic violence.

"I want to use what happened to me to draw attention to the plight of women in Saudi Arabia," she added.

Her case has attracted outrage from the handful of women's groups that exist in Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed al-Fallatta, her husband, an out-of-work singer, has disappeared and is wanted by police on charges of attempted murder.

According to Rania's mother, al-Fallatta beat his wife regularly. This time he was infuriated because she answered the telephone. "She told me she begged him not to hit her and he replied, 'Hit you? I am not going to hit you, I am going to kill you.' "

Rania told her mother: "He took his hands off my throat long enough for me to say, 'There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet' three times, then I surrendered my soul to Allah. Mohammed then went on to choke and beat me some more until I lost consciousness."

He bundled her up in a sheet and put her in a van. When Rania regained consciousness, she thought he was taking her to be buried.

Her mother said: "When he heard her moaning and trying to speak he must have panicked because he took her to hospital where he told staff she was the victim of a road accident and was dead."

Dima al-Sulaiman, the director of the National Home Health Foundation, said the abuse of women "is a very common problem in Saudi Arabia where maltreatment starts from childhood".

Dina Arif, a businesswoman, said: "Saudi men think that violent behaviour is the way to solve problems."

[Pearls Before Swine]

He took his hands off my throat long enough for me to say, 'There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet' three times"

There. What a decent fellow.

[dandelion]

We should be praying for this woman - she is literally taking her life in her hands...

[Numbers Guy]

Religion of peace!!!!

[cyborg]

Note to self: deep breath 'the saudis are our friends' another deep breath 'saudis are our friends'....

[Mr Rogers]

The book "Princess" by Sasson comes to mind.

[Redcloak]

"It's a religion of peace"...

[Rollee]

Oh, good God. Look at her before and after! I am going to be sick. Arab men are cowards, and I hope one day their women rise up and give them what they have coming to them.

[Falcon4.0]

They certainly don't deserver Woman of such Beauty.

[ml/nj]

ping

[Robert_Paulson2]

Rania al-Baz, who works for Saudi Arabia's state television's Channel One, is having a series of operations for 13 fractures to her face. She said she wanted to break the taboo on domestic violence.

"I want to use what happened to me to draw attention to the plight of women in Saudi Arabia," she added

---

13 fractures for allah's little man.
What an evil man, following an even more evil religion.

Islam MUST BE... MUST BE destroyed.
Every shrine, rock, minaret, mosque and imam must lose all trust and faith of the people who ignorantly seek the only god they never want to meet... satan.

[dandelion]

Evidently some in Saudi Arabia are beginning to see the light...

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=43112&d=14&m=4&y=2004&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

JEDDAH, 14 April 2004 - Princess Sarah Al-Anqari, the wife of Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, will pay for all further surgery for Rania Al-Baz, who was savagely beaten by her husband earlier this month, Arab News has learned.

Princess Sarah has ordered my transfer to King Faisal Specialist Hospital where all my surgery will be done at her expense, Rania said yesterday.

She said Jawhara Al-Anqari, a senior member of the National Human Rights Association, visited Rania at her hospital bed on Monday and said that she will personally see to it that justice is done and that Rania's rights are protected.

"I feel that I have been reborn, said Rania in an interview with Arab News from her parents' home, where she is recovering from a brutal beating at the hands of her husband. "I feel that I have been given a second chance at life."

[Eala]

the abuse of women "is a very common problem in Saudi Arabia where maltreatment starts from childhood".

Raphael Patai, in his excellent book "The Arab Mind," notes this as a very old issue deeply rooted in Arab culture.

[cyborg]

I would not object to a MOAB casting a shadow across Saudi Arabia, but I know it will never happen. I'd rather see Sudan get carpet bombed, but that won't happen either.

[zarf]

Arab men?

Come down to rural Tennessee and see some of the beauty advice men can dish out.

[Larry Lucido]

Oh, good God. Look at her before and after! I am going to be sick.

You're right. In the after picture, she is showing hair under her head-covering. Such immodesty is disgusting.

/end sarcasm

[Free ThinkerNY]

Those pictures and the words of her husband should be sent to every Leftist "women's rights" group in America.

[tet68]

"Saudi men think that violent behaviour is the way to solve problems."

YES, WE KNOW!!

[Alouette]

"Saudi men think that violent behaviour is the way to solve problems."

But only against women and the helpless.

U.S. Marines can solve their problems for them.

[BlackVeil]

Notice how she is a successful tv presenter, and the husband is an out-of-work singer?

I bet he is a no-hoper type, who cannot succeed, and is jealous of the wife's success. No doubt they started off as a couple both working in the entertainment sector, but she got ahead in life, and he did not.

Pyschologists who give court reports in cases of wife beating, and wife murder, often cite the wife's job as a "cause" of the crime, if the man is unemployed.

[Hand em their arse]

Saudi men = oxymoron!!

[McGavin999]

Beat women, hide behind them in battle, using children to fight for them. There is something seriously wrong with that society.

[McGavin999]

OMG, those pictures are horrible. Such a beautiful woman, and look at what he did to her.

[joesnuffy]

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

A bit of Kipling's tribute to Muslim women....

[Tacis]

As a Saudi woman, she deserved whatever her husband chose to give her. It is written.

[Alouette]

Such a beautiful woman, and look at what he did to her.

What happened to this woman was even worse. (Warning: very graphic mutilation photos)

[neutrino]

And remember - this is what the mo-slimes do to their own wives/daughters/sisters/mothers.

Now what do you suppose they will do to the women of America if given the chance?

The world will not be safe until this cult ceases to exist.

[sarasmom]

Not really a direct comparison.
It has been many years ago that a man beating a women was widely tolerated by this society.
It srill happens everywhere in the USA, all too often, but very few people still consider it normal or acceptable behavior.

[yankeedame]

Those pictures and the words of her husband should be sent to every Leftist "women's rights" group in America.

Who will "look into it" after they finish resolving the far more important women's concern such a being able to play golf at Augusta, and securing same-sex marriages.

[Buggman]

It's not as graphic, but here's some more stories of Muslims "protecting" their women.

[Rollee]

But in Tennessee, I suspect, just like in Illinois, women sometimes fight back.

[Aussie Kim]

Please don't tar _all_ Saudi men. I know a few (no, I have not met many, admittedly)who are kind and comparatively progressive. Of course, they now live _here_ and not there, so they bring down the numbers of kind men over there.

And it's not Islam that makes these men so cruel to their women. It's the mis-interpretation of their religion and their insanely misogynistic culture that encourages them.

The Q'ran states that "paradise is under the feet of the mother" and time and time again states that women must be respected, protected, loved and cared for.

But people are so stupid, so under-educated and so powerless that all some of them can do is beat up weaker ones.

It's the culture that needs to be changed - Saudi Arabia is not really a properly Islamic country - if it _were_ it would not have a royal family (and do we know who installed Saudi's royal family last century?), and its women would not be caged, beaten and would be allowed to take part in public life. They'd be allowed to drive cars, too.

Some of the Prophet Mohammed's wives were business women, they were teachers and they took part in society as respected, loved people.

The Saudis (and others) need to try to remember this.

Kim...

[BobS]

This is sick. Real men don't fight with a woman because there is no winning. When men must argue OVER a woman, the relationship is already over for all three and it's time to move along.

Violence is the usual outlet for a society in decline. We have our own too.

[Heatseeker]

I can second Eala's recommendation (see #13 above) of "The Arab Mind" by Raphael Patai. While it is true that traditional Arab culture plays a role, I do not believe Islam as currently understood by most who practice it is blameless either. Let's face it, Mohammed had some "issues" with women himself from his boy-toy years with Khadija.

[Commie Basher]

Religion of peace!!!!

What a mindless, knee-jerk, gratuitous statement. As if domestic violence is unknown in the US. As if no Christian or Jewish man ever hit his wife.

[Commie Basher]

Islam MUST BE... MUST BE destroyed.

If incidents of domestic violence means Islam must be desttoryed, you'd better add Judaism and Christianity to the list, because Jewish domestic violence and Christian domestic violence are not uncommon.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Dina Arif, a businesswoman, said: "Saudi men think that violent behaviour is the way to solve problems."

Ya think???

[Ignatz]

Some of the Prophet Mohammed's wives were business women, they were teachers and they took part in society as respected, loved people.

At least one was either nine or thirteen years old, I forget which. So some were molested children as well.

[Ignatz]

What a mindless, knee-jerk, gratuitous statement. As if domestic violence is unknown in the US. As if no Christian or Jewish man ever hit his wife.

It does happen in all cultures, I'm sure. But in Judaism and Christianity it's not condoned. It is in Islam, yet they call Islam a "religion of peace".

[bondjamesbond]

...you'd better add Judaism and Christianity to the list,...

Ya know, when Diane Sawyer's husband beats her to a bloody pulp, leaves her for dead, and is allowed to walk away from the hospital and escape punishment, I'll entertain your notion that there is some moral equivalence here...

[Robert_Paulson2]

Islam must be destroyed, independent of their problem with honor killings.

Christians don't practice honor killing as a religious tenet.

But if they did, I would say the same thing. Christians don't do the nailbomb on a busload of children...

Islam does.

only fools believe in the myth of moderate Islam. you need to get some new definitions into your vocabulary:

Mosque = Terrorist Barracks

Red Crescent Ambulance = Munitions Supply Truck

Radical Muslim = REAL Muslim who follows the Koran

Moderate Muslim = A Trojan horse who quietly smiles and nods his head at the terrorists

Koran = a call to terror, murder, oppression, slavery, misogyny and backward culture

Infidel = all non Muslims and Muslims who are not on jihad (all doomed to die)

Holy Lands = all lands unfortunate enough to be or ever have been under the heavy yoke of Muslim terror, murder, oppression, slavery, misogyny

Islamic Pride = an insanely jealous hatred for every other culture that has left Islam groveling in its seventh-century dust.

CAIR = Crying Arabic Islamic Retrogrades

Minaret = Satan's jukebox

Burkha = Misogynistic Mobile Women's Prison

Rape = something the guys get to do, especially to those hottie infidel chicks! (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

Modern Technology = "Huh? Oh yes, that stuff the evil infidels make and maintain for us to use and kill them."

Allah = the Moon God, whose most important representative here on earth is that meteorite worshiped in Mecca

Little Boys = a man's pleasure machines

Paradise = a giant rape orgy for you - if you die while ruthlessly murdering innocent unsuspecting infidel women and children

U.S. Armed Forces = things to run away from or kill with booby-traps, unless you can take a cheap shot at them and then hide behind women and children or hide in a Mosque.

Christian Church = firewood

Synagogue = firewood

Buddhist Temple = firewood

Hindu Temple = firewood

Confucian Church = firewood

Jewish Restaurant = Bomb Demolition Depot

Islam cannot be pacified, and must be eradicated or recreated in the apostate format. Islamic apologists are wasting their breath on me. (special thanks for definitions courtesy of: broadsword)

[expatguy]

Is there a point to your post? If so then kindly explain it.

[colorado tanker]

I have a feeling that according to the "Arab street" and their apologists in the West this must somehow be Israel and George Bush's fault.

[Commie Basher]

I thought the point was obvious, at least to anyone who doesn't want to avoid it.

A key element of true conservatism is individualism. And when a Christian or Jew does something evil, it's accepted that that individual is evil. But whenever any Muslim anywhere commits evil, all the idiots crawl out of the woodwork with their knee-jerk "religion of peace" pings, as though the acts of an individual Muslim condemns hundreds of millions (a billion?) worldwide.

It's sickening how conservatism has been corrupted and dummied-down these past few years. 15 years ago, conservatism used to be mostly rational, civil, intelligent. 9/11 did not "change everything," but it certainly did much to change to character of conservatism.

Bush, at least, claims we are not at war with Islam. But you wouldn't know it from all his Muslim-bashing "conservative" supporters (who trash the very essence of a rational, individualist conservatism).

[pettifogger]

Can't help but find "Good-bye Earl" running through my head.

Yes, I know it's the Dixie Chicks, but had they kept their left-wing mouths shut I wouldn't have had to give away my CD collection!

[expatguy]

...A key element of true conservatism is individualism. And when a Christian or Jew does something evil, it's accepted that that individual is evil. But whenever any Muslim anywhere commits evil, all the idiots crawl out of the woodwork with their knee-jerk "religion of peace" pings, as though the acts of an individual Muslim condemns hundreds of millions (a billion?) worldwide...

Depending on your sources, you have an estimated 5-10% of Muslims worldwide who have declared war on the "infidels" and "non believers".

Scores of Christians are being killed DAILY throughout Africa, Indonesia, The Sub Continent and the Middle East. These Christians are being killed because they are Christian and refuse to accept Islam.

Many of us here at Freerepublic have noticed an extremely disturbing trend. And that is the refusal of the so-called Moderate Muslims and their leaders worldwide to condemn these acts. Not only do they NOT condemn these acts of violence and killings being commited in the name of Islam, but in many case actually call for it and encourage it, they celebrate the deaths of Christians and Jews.

Perhaps you forgot the cheering on the streets of Gaza, Egypt and other Muslim countries on 9/11.

We are not condemning Muslims worldwide, they are condemning themselves with their deafening silence.

What you are seeing here at Freerepublic is not knee-jerk reactions, but a grassroots movement of individuals coming to the realization the that we are facing a collective threat to our very existance. People are coming to the realization that this "religion" or "idealogy" is threat to us all collectively.

Your philosophical arguement concering conservatism and individualism is correct but you don't seem to see the forest through the trees. The "forest" is that we are all in the same boat facing a menace that wants to sink our boat and kill us collectively.

[Commie Basher]

Many of us here at Freerepublic have noticed an extremely disturbing trend. And that is the refusal of the so-called Moderate Muslims and their leaders worldwide to condemn these acts. Not only do they NOT condemn these acts of violence and killings being commited in the name of Islam, but in many case actually call for it and encourage it, they celebrate the deaths of Christians and Jews.

I wonder how many FReepers know American Muslims. I've known three, having met them here in Los Angeles well before 9/11. Two were Persian, one was Burmese. All were secular, modern in dress and manners. Two were law students, and passed the California bar.

Also here in Los Angeles, many Persian/Muslim shops/gas stations, etc. flew American flags after 9/11.

I also recall reading an internet story (maybe on Ananova) about Egyptian/Muslim actor Omar Sharif talking about throwing a big bar mitzvah for his Jewish grandchild.

Modern, westernized Muslims are out there.

[7thson]

But just remember. According to Hitlery, women have it so good over in Mid East countries. At least they did under Saddam. I wonder what Crusty the Clown would say about this? Maybe the before/after picutres should be sent to her.

[Aussie Kim]

And even if Muslims decided to try to use the media to stand up and say "violence is wrong", "terrorism is wrong", etc, do you really think the media will either broadcast them, or report exactly what they said without manipulation?

From what we can see out here, the US media is almost entirely biased - your average Joe Shmuck out in the suburbs (or trailer park) has No Idea of what's really going on in the world because the media is totally one-sided.

DO you honestly think that if Muslims got up to say anything that the media _wouldn't_ twist their words?

The media are bent and twisted - criminally so, in my not at all humble opinion - no wonder Muslims want nothing to do with it.

Kim...

[Aussie Kim]

And of course, all people who call themselves "Christian" are perfect and no Christian _ever_ killed anyone, did they?

When Christianity was around 1400 years old, what were Christians doing? Oh yeah - crusades, inquisitions, etc.
Killing Muslims and other Christians alike. Because the masses were uneducated and the leaders were idiots.

Islam is currently about 1400 years old. And what do they have? Uneducated masses (in much LARGER populations than the Christian Middle Ages), Loony leaders (with much more money and power and weapons than in the Christian Middle Ages) AND an enemy that appears to have all the money, all the power, all the influence and all the ignorance of culture and history that's probably necessary to have in order to at least be a fair and generous Single World Superpower.

So really, I don't think it's any surprise the world is where it is today.

Kim...