Princess Sultana's Circle

City’s finest French
restaurants. Sara knew that I found Huda’s absurd obsession with
food increasingly annoying.
    Even in the midst of
excited voices, I became lost in my sad thoughts of the innocent
children stolen from their mothers.
    My thoughts returned to
Heidi. What future now awaited this lonely child?
    From what I had read about
Heidi’s Saudi father, I knew that the poor girl would be raised in
the strictest of Muslim homes. Within a short time she would be
compelled to don the veil, for in my country many Muslim girls are
being forced to veil even before they reach puberty. Following her
veiling, Heidi would undoubtedly be coerced into an arranged
marriage to a man she would not know until the first shocking night
in the marriage bed.
    I tried to sleep, but my
rest was fitful. After I had spent a few hours of tossing and
turning in my uncomfortable seat, Sara came to my side to tell me
that we were to land shortly. We would be stopping in London for
the night before continuing on to Saudi Arabia.
    Had I known that during our
short time in England we would be humiliated by the enormous press
coverage of a Saudi legal case, I would have pleaded with Kareem to
cancel our London landing, and instead have our pilots fly the
plane on to Paris.

Chapter Eleven
    Beheaded
    U pon arriving at the airport in London, we were confronted with
shocking newspaper headlines: the two most prominent words were
“Saudi Arabia” and “beheadings.”
    “ What is happening?” I
asked Kareem. I was becoming alarmed for my family. Kareem spoke in
a low voice as he guided us through the airport.
    “ This is the case of those
two British nurses. It seems that they have been found guilty of
murder.”
    “ Oh, yes.” I quickly
recalled the incident that had attracted so much attention
abroad.
    The story had begun about a
year before when two British nurses, Deborah Parry and Lucille
McLauchlan, had been arrested in Saudi Arabia on the suspicion of
the murder of Yvonne Gilford, an Australian nurse. And, now, during
the time we had been away in New York City, a Saudi court had found
these two women guilty of murder. The British people rejected
capital punishment a long time ago, but in Saudi Arabia, convicted
murderers are still put to death. We were entering a city that was
obviously filled with great agitation at the idea of two British
citizens losing their heads to the sword of a Saudi Arabian
executioner!
    I shuddered. Although it is
my belief that the crime of murder demands uncompromising
punishment, I have always found the idea of beheadings utterly
horrifying! Actually, many people find our entire Muslim system of
justice primitive and shocking. Islamic law, or Sharia, is the
basis for civil and criminal law in Saudi Arabia. The Koran,
Islam’s holy book, and the sunnah, examples of Prophet Mohammed’s
deeds and commands, is the basis for Sharia. And, unlike laws in
many Western countries, Sharia stresses the rights of the society
over the rights of the individual.
    The punishments laid down
for breaking Islamic laws are swift and severe. Convicted murderers
and rapists are beheaded, adulterers are stoned to death, and
thieves suffer amputation of their right hand. Other penalties
include public lashings, as well as the more universally acceptable
jail terms, and fines. These severe punishments may look brutal,
but most Muslim nations enjoy a lower crime rate than do many other
countries.
    Knowing that our entire
system of justice was under public British media scrutiny caused
our party to become unusually subdued as our drivers transported us
into greater London.
    After we arrived at our
apartment in Knightsbridge, Kareem and Asad left for the Saudi
Arabian Embassy to find out what was going on. As we settled into
our apartment, we women turned our attention to the newspapers
Kareem had purchased at the airport.
    I winced as I read, for the
accounts of the ordeal these two British nurses were undergoing
filled the front pages. Every aspect of the Saudi judicial system
was explored and condemned. These newspapers seemed to be outraged
above all by the idea that our “primitive” society allows families
of murder victims to have a say in the punishment of those
condemned.
    In Saudi Arabia, if a
murder has been committed, the family of the victim has the right
to demand that the murderer is killed in the same manner, or in any
other way they choose. There have been indeed cases of families in
Saudi Arabia choosing