My honor had been assassinated…
Graduating medical school and becoming an M.D meant nothing to me anymore, it carried no weight. It also meant nothing to my family. My life had become a monotonous saga that was more annoying than anything.
Throughout those months of isolated confusion, long days of subjugation and while I was rotting away waiting for the unknown to happen, the religious police took the papers I was coerced to sign and filled them up with a preposterous story. One only their obscene minds could dream up. A story that I would later hear from my own father who believed every single word penned on the papers that carried my thumb prints.
Father was 100% certain that I was lying when I tried to clarify that I signed these papers under blackmail threats. The story now was that I was arrested exiting an apartment after fornicating with M.
My case was taken to court without our knowledge and in my absence a sentence of 80 lashes and 2 months in jail was handed down.
Father now came to the decision that I was no longer worth the inconvenience I was causing him. He signed me off to my brother and took himself out of the equation but not before making it clear that I should serve the time and punishment.
But I thought this was over!!!? Wasn’t what happened to me punishment enough??? Why am I being penalized again? What did I do? When did all this happen?? When will this all end?!!
I was drowning in panic. Why was no one interested in hearing the truth? Are these religious monsters trusted that much??
The next 2 weeks promised to be even worse than the time I had spent incarcerated. I was subjected to ruthless mental abuse by my brother and his wife. His wife had a particular enthusiasm for coming over and talking to me about the routine for lashing women. She didn’t hold back in sharing her expertise on how much it could hurt. The bleeding…the bruising…and the marks that would with no doubt be left on my body.
Meanwhile, my brother shockingly fought the religious police who in turn fought even harder to see me get this much-needed correction. This went on every day for the most part of the 2 weeks. He would go to the court attempting to get an appeal to delay/stop the punishment from happening and his efforts would constantly be met by rejection from the Sharia Law court. This culminated in his irritation and my further psychological deterioration.
I finally reached a point where I asked him to stop fighting it. I just wanted to get this over and done with quickly so I could try to resume my life which had been stuck in this tornado of religious ugliness.
I had become sick of my case. Sick of the dishonest and fraudulent judicial system that was being run by beasts who hated everyone and anyone who wasn’t them. The bigots who enjoyed hurting innocent people and destroying lives.
Finally, my brother got an appointment with the prince of Riyadh whom he lied to by saying I had been married off to a man who didn’t know about my case. That if I was to serve the time and punishment my husband would divorce me.
As a direct result of this lie I was pardoned by the royal family 2 days before I was to get my punishment of 80 lashes.
Yes, I was pardoned…
I was pardoned for being abducted from a car by tyrants who threw me in jail and concocted a story that never happened then filled in some blank papers they had blackmailed me to sign and then took my case to court without informing me or my family. I was pardoned from a punishment of an imaginary crime.
None the less, I was happy the day I was informed of my pardon. I finally saw an end to my tragedy with the religious police. Was this finally over?
Now, I was disowned by father and my brother was my sole legal guardian. Now another chapter of purgatory would begin in my life.
With regards to M, I found out eventually that he had a comparable fate to mine. Only unlike myself he was flogged…
I never saw M again and I never heard from him either. Our short-lived friendship turned catastrophe haunts me to this day. As I am sure it does him.
This 7 post series is for you M. If you ever read this, I hope you are well…and I am sorry my driver never showed up that day.