COMMENTARY: Lashing Women for Driving a Car in Saudi Arabia Must End

A court in Saudi Arabia this week sentenced a woman to 10 lashes with a whip because she drove a car in that country.

Women are not allowed to drive motor vehicles in Saudi Arabia, and this woman received the lashing sentence for defying the driving ban.

In the past, women were detained for several days for driving in Saudi Arabia, but had not been sentenced by a court. It appears that Saudi Arabia has decided to impose a harsher sentence against women drivers, because a greater number of them have been driving in that country during the past two months or so.

Ironically, the lashing sentence was handed out just a few days after Saudi King Abdullah announced that Saudi women would be given the right to vote and to run for office beginning in 2015.

The fact is that under Shariah -- or Islamic law -- women are treated as second-class citizens in most Arabic nations.

For example, women who commit adultery are subject to being stoned to death. Women are are not allowed to get a divorce, but men are. Wives cannot even leave their homes, unless they have their husbands' permission to do so.

These are just a few examples of the accepted norms in Islamic nations as they demean women. Needless to say, there are many more.

Although people in Western cultures may consider this treatment of Islamic women to be degrading, Muslims -- for the most part -- have accepted them, without question, as being an integral part of their society.

But to whip a woman for driving a car is a barbaric sentence -- and one that Saudi Arabia must end.

Indeed, human beings -- both men and women -- must not be whipped or tortured for crimes they may have committed in any nation, since this kind of punishment is barbaric and is a disgrace for a civilized society.