Take equal parts pathological sexism, religious fascism, and the impotent rage of petty bureaucrats. Stir and heat:

A university professor allegedly caught in a Saudi-style honey trap has been sentenced to 180 lashes and eight months in jail - for having coffee with a girl. The man, a prominent and well-respected Saudi teacher of psychology at Umm al-Qra University in the holy city of Mecca, was framed by the religious police after he angered some of their members at a training course, his lawyer said... Contact between unrelated men and women is strictly prohibited in the desert kingdom where religious police, commonly known as mutaween, patrol public places in teams to enforce their brand of ultra-conservative Islam... Ruzaiz is said to have received a call from a girl purporting to be one of his students who asked to meet to discuss a problem that she did not want to talk about over the phone. The professor agreed to meet at a family cafe, provided she brought her brother along as a chaperone. When he arrived, he was surprised to find the girl alone, and was promptly surrounded by religious policemen who handcuffed him and hauled him into custody. He was accused of being in a state of khulwa — seclusion — with an unrelated woman. His lawyer insisted that because the two met in a public place frequented by hundreds of families, the question of khulwa, or illegal seclusion, never arose. The commission, however, insists that the family sections at coffee shops and restaurants are meant only for families and close relatives.

As always, the contrast between the idiocy of the underlying laws and the fetishistic insistence on legal protocal is... revealing. In this case it's about the precise juridical status of a coffee shop as it relates to minutia that determines when women are allowed to be present - as if the underlying segregation, itself based on a pathological hatred of women, is just a natural framework. See also: the recent witchcraft conviction and planned public beheading of a Saudi woman. The mutaween beat her to the point of death before she "confessed" to the alleged crime: making a man impotent with her sorcery. Legal procedure is followed with admirable dedication - in a trial about witchcraft brought by a guy who's ego couldn't handle clinical impotence. But seriously, resentment and hatred of women has nothing to do with how sharia law is implemented by our friends the Saudis.

References:
* Professor Faces 180 Lashes for Having Coffee With Student [Fox News]
* Our Friends the Saudis [LGF]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You're A Feminist Who Thinks That The Koran Should Give Women Rights, You May Have To Die [MR]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You're A Female Political Leader In The Muslim World, You Might Have To Die [MR]
* Feminist Magazine MS To Powerful Israeli Women: Sorry, You're Too Jewish To Be In Our Magazine [MR]