When it comes to Saudi Arabia, people's first reaction is extremely rich oil resources, just as netizens joked that "a piece of cloth overhead, the world is the richest", rich oil resources have indeed brought endless wealth to Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi royal family is even richer.
According to the World Bank, the total assets of the Saudi royal family exceed $1.4 trillion, making it the most local royal family in the world.
But in 1977, a beautiful Saudi princess was stoned by order of her grandfather.
This princess was Princess Mishaal, the niece of the late King Khalid bin Abdul, of noble blood. What did Mishar, a royal princess, do to go against the grain and be publicly stoned?
Saudi princess
Princess Mishaal
In 1958, Mishar Bint Fahd was born into a royal family in Saudi Arabia, whose ancestor was Abdul Aziz, the founding prince of Saudi Arabia, and his grandfather was Prince Mohammed.
Although Saudi Arabia 'princes are everywhere' and the number of royal families is large, Mishaal is not an ordinary member of the royal family, her status is very high, she is a senior member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia.
Born noble, Mishaal was not only beautiful in appearance, but also clever and clever, and was favored by his parents and grandfather Muhammad from an early age, and lived a life of fine clothes and food.
But even the princess Mishaal could not escape the shackles of the feudal system, and at the age of fourteen, Mishaal was forced to marry her cousin.
Princess Mishaal with her grandfather
Her cousin, who was in his forties at the time, had already married two wives before Mishaal, and there was not only a huge age difference between the two, but also a great difference in the perceptions of the two sides.
But according to Saudi law, all women must have a male guardian, and after marriage, Mishar's husband became Mishaal's guardian.
But Mishaal was modernly educated as a member of the royal family, and she was born with a sense of rebellion and longed for freedom, and although she was married, she was still bent on breaking free from the shackles of the royal family.
Saudi Arabia
Michael and Khalid
At the age of 19, she finally persuaded her grandfather, Prince Mohammed, to study in Lebanon, the most secular and open place in the Arab world.
Her husband did not want to agree, but forced by the prestige of Prince Mohammed, he had to agree to his wife's study in Lebanon.
Lebanon is a semi-Christian and semi-Islamic place, where openness and freedom bring many good memories to Mishaal, where women do not have to wear veils and burqas to go to barbecue shops to taste delicious barbecues, or go to cafes to quietly drink a cup of coffee.
The atmosphere of Lebanon's freedom gave Mishaal a completely different joy from that of Saudi Arabia.
During his study in Lebanon, Mishaal met Khalid, the nephew of the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, and like Mishaal, Khalid was also a Saudi who went to Lebanon to study, and the two were not only of similar age, but also had the same soul, and soon fell into the vortex of love.
Study
The two people in love, you and me, can't do without each other. The two who are addicted to the sweetness of love know that their love affair is not allowed, and the two can only meet secretly.
It may be in Mishaal's heart that they are not only sad about their future at once.
Soon, there was no impermeable wall in the world, and the news of the two people's love was discovered, and soon spread to Saudi Arabia. The princess's public cohabitation with a man can be regarded as a rebellious act.
Before the in-laws could get angry, Mishaal's parents were first very angry, and Mishaal's father lied that her mother was seriously ill and wanted to see Mitchal for the last time, and recalled her to Saudi Arabia. After returning home, the family did not punish Mishaal very severely, but only warned her not to associate with Khalid again.
princess
Mishaal's father assured her that as long as Mishaal no longer had contact with Khalid, he would personally take care of settling the matter. Even her grandfather, Prince Mohammed, wanted to take Mishar with him to London for a vacation in July.
If Mishaal can suppress her feelings after returning to China and obey the arrangements of her family, she can continue to live the rest of her life without worry.
Maybe she will be snubbed by her in-laws for the rest of her life, but at least she will not die.
But Michal does not want to live like this, she wants to fight for her love, even if it is a moth to put out the fire. She agreed with Khalid to elope together and flee the Saudis.
Mishar had hoped to escape by taking a vacation to London with his grandfather in July, but towards July, Prince Mohammed cancelled his travel plans. The pair of bitter lovers could only hastily redevelop an escape plan.
princess
Michal threw his clothes on the beach, pretended to drown, and prepared to escape dressed as a man. Unfortunately, Mishaal was spotted when he arrived at the airport in men's clothes and was about to leave by plane. Once again, their escape plan failed.
Michael's parents, distressed by their daughter, begged many people to save their daughter's life, and repeatedly advised Mishar not to admit anything.
As for Khalid, he seduced the princess twice in a row, and although the Saudi royal family could not sentence him to criminal law for adultery, it was ready to execute Khalid for treason.
According to Islamic sharia law, only four adult male witnesses who prove that two people committed adultery, or confess guilt themselves, and publicly shout "I have committed adultery" three times in court can be convicted.
So if Mishar doesn't admit to the relationship between the two, she won't be convicted.
Saudi princess
After all, As a Princess of Saudi Arabia, Mishaal could not find four adult men in the whole of Saudi Arabia who dared to prove that she had committed adultery. But Mishaal admits that she sees denial as a taint to the love between the two, and she is determined to die with Khalid.
She not only admitted to their love affair, but also shouted "I have committed adultery" three times in front of everyone. Under Saudi law, Mishaal was convicted of adultery and the judge sentenced her to stone.
But because the matter concerns the Saudi royal family, and it is not an ordinary member of the royal family, the judge did not dare to make such a judgment. I had to report the matter.
Hearing this news, Prince Muhammad, who had once loved Mishaal incomparably, was furious, and Mishaal's behavior was tantamount to directly punching the Saudi royal family in the face, and Prince Mohammed personally ordered the trial to be stopped, and Mishar was stoned, and Khalid was beheaded.
Stills of Princess Mitchal
Stoning is a very cruel criminal law, when the woman is buried in the soil below the chest, the torturer repeatedly throws stones at the torturer, and the father and family of the tortured person must declare that the person is no longer their daughter and throw stones at him.
The stones were specially selected so that the tortured would not die in a few clicks. The whole process is long and cruel.
On July 15, 1977, Princess Mishaal and her lover Khalid were dragged to a dump in downtown Jeddah where more than a hundred male members of the Saudi royal family were preparing to be stoned.
Until a moment before the execution, someone at the scene asked Prince Mohammed whether he really wanted to execute Mishaal. The execution of the death penalty was initiated after clear instructions were given.
Stony
The whole process lasted for a long time, and Mishaal's lover Khalid was not far from Mishaal, but he could do nothing, probably to punish Khalid, and no one blindfolded Khalid, he could only watch his lover Mishaal die in pain.
After Mishaal was executed, Mishaal's brother cut off Khalid's head with an Arab saber, because he was not a professional executioner, he cut off Khalid's head five times in a row, and the blood flowed to the ground, and the scene was unbearable.
That year, Michal was 19 years old and Khalid was 20 years old, both of them were flower-like in age, and they were both strangled before they could open up wantonly.
The incident was filmed by Barry Milner, an Englishman working in Saudi Arabia, and later made into the film Death of the Princess.
The film uses a very intuitive lens, almost cruelly showing people the process of stoning, and every time you watch this movie, it will make people feel heart-wrenching pain.
Stony
Princess Michal was so young and beautiful, but she was stoned to death because she had a free love. This reminds us of the situation of all women in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, has an almost harsh demand on women in islamic canons, often wearing a burqa and veil, and only one pair of eyes can be exposed.
The influence of Islam in Saudi Arabia is so great that even if Mishar Gui is a princess, even if her grandfather is the famous Prince Mohammed, she cannot choose the man she likes according to her own wishes.
But what exactly did Mishaal do wrong?
She was married to her forty-something cousin at the age of fourteen, and her husband could have four wives, and there may not be much love between the two.
Saudi women
She met the love of her life and was unwilling to betray the relationship. If I had to say that Michal was wrong, she might have been born in the wrong place.
While the tragedy of The love between Mishar and Khalid makes us lament, we should also note that such a thing is not unique in Saudi Arabia.
As a princess of relatively high status in Saudi Arabia, Mishaal still has no freedom, not to mention thousands of ordinary women.
Of course, in recent years, the atmosphere in Saudi Arabia has changed, no longer as depressed and closed as before, and the status and power of women have been improved to a certain extent, but if you count the so-called "progress", it is actually just a rightful power.
Until now, Saudi Arabia has not abolished stoning.
bibliography
ZHANG Yuanyuan. On the Influence of Islamic Law Culture on "Stone Punishment"[J].Academic Theory, 2012(29):128-129