Saudi women’s rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider talks with Al Jazeera about the corporal punishment sentence imposed on a rape victim being doubled after she spoke out about her case. The shocking punishment is supposedly for “illegal mingling”. A Saudi woman can only have a husband or male relative as an escort in public. The female victim says she met the male friend in his car so that he could return a photograph he had of her. It is then that both were gang raped by a group of seven men. She now faces a six month jail term and 200 lashes. The man was sentenced to 90 lashes, which is the original sentence the female victim had.

Four of the rapists were convicted of kidnapping. They were sentenced to between 1 and 5 years in prison with between 80 and 1,000 lashes. Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, the woman’s lawyer and a human rights campaigner, criticized the court’s decision publicly. He has subsequently had his license to practice law suspended, and is facing a hearing by a justice ministry disciplinary committee for regularly talking about the case on television.

The toxic effects of the herbicide Paraquat is also covered in the second half of the video. The discussion on Paraquat is continued in Part 2 of this episode, along with a ritual in the Indian city of Jodhpur where women dress up like men for one night of the year.