Weird news - Saudi woman divorced husband because he was too short

This one is a weird one, but maybe not so much. Divorce rates are increasing, and the reasons for the divorce may not seem logical for somebody seeing it from much further away, and may be entirely logical and reasonable for somebody who is involved in the whole matter. And divorce based on physical appearances is something very common, even though in many cases, some other reason may be given for the same.
What seems funny in this case is the public perception of Saudi Arabia as a place where women are oppressed, where they have no rights. This may be true to a large extent (for example, they are not allowed to drive), but this case where a wife filed a petition for divorce seems to suggest that there are many rights available to a women. In this case, the wife wanted a divorce since her husband was much shorter than her, and the public reaction to their height differences was enough that she wanted out of this marriage (link to article)

The woman, in her 20s, has reportedly told the endowment department in the country's eastern province that she wanted to separate from her husband because she is painfully uneasy with, and caused distress by, attitudes towards the union from strangers in public. The head of the endowment department in Al Qatif, Shaikh Mohammed Al Jirani, said the case was among the strangest it had dealt with. News of the woman's bold move has received a mixed response on social media, with some blaming her for accepting to marry him to begin with, while a few said she was right to be divorcing the man as his height was not an issue which could be overcome with mere patience.

Weird news - Saudi woman takes revenge on husband by putting huge traffic fines

In Islamic societies and in many other countries where there are significant number of Muslims, multiple marriages are allowed for those men who are capable in terms of their abilities to support multiple wives. There is a limit on the number of wives a person can have, this limit being 4 wives (4 existing wives, divorced or dead do not count). When a person wants to marry again, the existing wives cannot oppose this, it is sanctified as per law and religious authority. And there are a number of people who do exercise this right, marrying multiple times. In Saudi Arabia, this is exemplified by the royal family, where the king and his male family members would have multiple wives and hence multiple children.
What does a wife do when she is notified by her husband that he is taking another wife ? Well, she really cannot oppose it, no authority in the country would support her. This wife took an interesting approach; she literally decided to make her husband pay for taking a second wife. So, when he was off celebrating his second marriage, she, along with her brother, decided to take the family vehicle, and break traffic rules. Now, crossing a red light would automatically be picked up by traffic cameras, and she got her brother to do this multiple times (she cannot drive since as per Saudi law, women cannot drive, another weird fact) (link to article):

The disgruntled wife took her husband's pickup truck as he was celebrating his second marriage and asked her brother to deliberately drive it through red lights where the licence number could be picked up by cameras. A video clip that went viral on the internet shows the vehicle driving through a red traffic light, getting caught by the camera and then reversing to repeat the violation, Gulf News reported. The total fine tally amounted to around 300,000 Saudi riyals, or $80,000.

Weird news: Snowman declared anti-Islamic by Saudi cleric

Building a snowman is an activity much liked by children and even adults. After all, when there is snow falling and a lot of snow on the ground, what can be more interesting than building a snowman and decorating the snowman with hat, muffler and other items to make it more lifelike. What can be more innocent ? So what would you say if people in Saudi Arabia, who managed to get some snow, decided to ask a religious cleric about whether it was within religious principles to make a snowman ? Sound a bit off, doesn't it ? After all, what would be the need to get religious approval for this ? Well, if this was not weird enough, the religious cleric came back with the advice that since Islam does not approve the creation of the human form (only God is allowed to make the human form with a soul), and hence the advice was that this is not allowed as per Islamic principles. (link to article)

Asked on a religious website if it was permissible for fathers to build snowmen for their children after a snowstorm in the country's north, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid replied: "It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun." Quoting from Muslim scholars, Sheikh Munajjid argued that to build a snowman was to create an image of a human being, an action considered sinful under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Sunni Islam.

Weird news - Woman beheaded over sorcery claims in Saudi Arabia

Witchcraft was a major problem for women in the medieval ages, with the official law and order system of countries actually trying women and killing them for the same. This was with the sanction of the Church, but was something that was stopped many centuries. However, even now, in many parts of the world, you hear of some poor lady or the other being accused of witchcraft (this provides somebody who is suffering an outlet to blame somebody for their problems, and when combined with societies where people believe in magic) and being killed. However, these are not officially sanctioned, and are more individual or mob actions.
So it was very surprising when I read this news article about a woman being beheaded in Saudi Arabia for practising sorcery. Does Saudi Arabia believe that a person could actually know magic, and yet not be able to save herself from being accused and executed for such a crime ? Apparently yes, since the news report makes it clear that the conviction was for forgery, which led to a beheading (link to article):

A Saudi woman was beheaded on Monday after being convicted of practising sorcery, which is banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said.
Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar was executed in the northern province of Jawf for "practising witchcraft and sorcery," the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

Ancient Paganism: The Sorcery of the Fallen Angels

Sorcery

The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery

Weird news - Saudi lady sentenced to 10 lashes for driving

Sometimes we take our independence for granted. The ability to drive wherever we want, live the way we want, and so on. This is particularly true for woman's rights, where many countries had to go through long struggles to establish rights.
Even in the modern western democracies, where the spirit of freedom is taken for granted, rights for women such as the right to drive, and most important, the right to vote were won only in the last century, and too after long struggles. So it seems strange when you hear that in some societies, women are still deprived of the right to drive because of cultural and religious reasons.
But to expect that a woman can be expected to be lashed because she had the guts to drive is something that is totally unexpected, and yet that is the scene in the conservative Islamic society of Saudi Arabia where a religious police governs everything (link to article):

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to be lashed 10 times with a whip for defying the kingdom's prohibition on female drivers, the first time a legal punishment has been handed down for a violation of the longtime ban in the ultraconservative Muslim nation.
The driver, Shaima Jastaina, in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission, activist Samar Badawi said. The punishment is usually carried out within a month. It was not possible to reach Jastaina, but Badawi, in touch with Jastaina's family, said she appealed the verdict.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women _ both Saudi and foreign _ from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

In the end, the king over-turned the judgment, but it also showed how far backward the country actually is and the sorry state of women's rights.

Weird news - Considering how to deliberately cause paralysis in Saudi Arabia

People are generally shocked when they get to know about some of the punishments that they see or hear about in areas governed by a harsher versions of Islam, such as stoning for adultery, or cutting off hands or feet for theft, or the many punishments carried out by the Taliban in the areas under their control. However, this is not something that happens infrequently, it is part of the system of jurisprudence, where a crime can be punished by a similar punishment as the crime. However, it still feels very shocking, especially when one reads of cases such as this court in Saudi Arabia wanting to know whether paralysis can be a punishment for somebody who caused paralysis in somebody else (link to article):

Saudi media are reporting that a judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him. Saudi Arabia enforces Islamic law and on occasion metes out punishments based on the ancient code of an eye-for-an-eye.
The unidentified defendant hit Abdul Aziz Al Mutairi, another Saudi, with a cleaver during a fight more than two years ago and the trial has been delayed because Mutairi is insisting that his attacker suffer the same injury.