Update: Saudi Foreign Minister: It’s ok that we punished that gang rape victim, she’s a whore!

When defending rape, imputing that the victim was promiscuous is a frequently used tactic. Today, the Saudi Arabian government issued a statement claiming that the woman who was gang raped 14 times earlier this month, was having an affair when she was raped. This was meant to mitigate the international outrage that occurred after news broke of the girl's story.

The minister claims that the woman has admitted to being in the act of intercourse with a man other than her husband, when she and her lover were gang raped at knife point. By releasing this information, the foreign minister believes it is somehow helping its case.

What is the Saudi government saying, “She was having an affair so she deserved it”? First of all, I don’t trust the Saudi government to fully report the truth when it is under international scrutiny. There is a good chance, this new fact is untrue. But even if it is true, it doesn’t matter. Her gang rape was still a terrible crime, and her punishment should still be nothing. If she was having an affair, than the state should leave it to them to sort it out, its simply not the governments job. The Saudi’s show how they completely miss the point by defending themselves like this.