By Dan Littauer, Executive Editor, 24.5.11

A Saudi girl from Turaif, nicknamed Sarah, spoke on a recent radio program and said she was expelled from her last year of studies at Abdul-Aziz University, for having a lesbian relationship with her hostel supervisor.

While she was expelled, no action was taken against the supervisor “who sent more than 1,000 love texts to my mobile in addition to written letters,” she told the program.

Sarah admitted to the relationship to an investigating committee by swearing on the Qur’an, but the supervisor denied it.

Sarah protests that the committee expelled “me while I was in the final year of my studies. It is a harsh punishment. They should have imposed a softer punishment so that I could continue my studies.”

Abdul Qader Tankal, supervisor of safety and security at King Abdul-Aziz University, said the committee should have dealt with the issue more sensibly and provided the girl with necessary counselling with the help of educators and psychologists.

He said expelling the girl created a new problem instead of resolving the issue. In other words he would have preferred the student to lie while taking oath on the Qu’ran!  Following the statement, there is no other way but for the action to now also be taken against the supervisor by college authorities. He also commented that lesbian relationships are increasingly common due to  the influence of “satellite channels and the Internet.”

“When we observed a few cases in our university we dealt with them by providing necessary counselling. We also hold a number of lectures and other programs to protect girls from having such deviant relationships,” he said.

Gay Middle East calls on the Saudi Authorities to allow the student to continue her studies immediately and leave the supervisor alone.  We further call upon International and National Psychological Associations to condemn such generalisations and policies based on homophobic psychological assumptions. King Abdul-Aziz University’s position in various International projects should be reconsidered if they fail to comply.

Source: Arab News