Saudi pardon:

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia did the least he could do when he pardoned the “girl from Qatif.” The perfect injustice of the case, in which a young woman was gang-raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes and prison for being alone in a car with a man, was intolerable.

We would like to believe the pardon was not simply a response to a great outcry from beyond the desert kingdom, but evidence of Abdullah’s genuine commitment to the reform of Saudi Arabia’s archaic judicial system of Shariah-based rulings dispensed by stern Wahhabi clerics. Two months ago, before the Qatif case made international headlines, he approved plans for a substantial reformation of the legal system, to include the creation of a Supreme Court as well as specialised courts for criminal, commercial, labour and family matters.

In any case, Abdullah should understand that sex discrimination must be excised from any culture that longs to participate in the modern world or purports to adhere to global standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention against Torture. Abdullah has demonstrated a laudable readiness to nudge Saudi Arabia in the right direction. Let’s hope the Qatif incident shows him just how far Saudi Arabia has to go, and how urgently. — International Herald Tribune