Pardon? PARDON?????

Okay, I try to be open to the idea that Islam is not necessarily more oppressive of women than other religions (in other words, extremely, infuriatingly oppressive of women), but this is today's version of This Absolutely Takes the Fucking Cake.

The story is that a woman in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, was raped. Unfortunately for her, she reported it to the police, so as a consequence she was prosecuted and sentenced to prison for eighteen months.

Bad enough, right? Like unimaginably bad. But it gets worse.

She doesn't have to go to prison for eighteen months. She's been released, her passport's been returned, and she gets to go home.

How is this worse? Because she gets to do all these things because she has been granted a pardon! A pardon for the crime of being raped!

Yes, that's right. A woman is raped, is discouraged from reporting it to the police, is eventually taken into custody and sentenced to prison, and the people who run the place think they can make it all better by granting her a pardon.

You commonly hear people say "There are no words," and in this case I pretty much have to agree.