Some good news from Dubai: they've pardoned and released Marte Deborah Dalelv:
A Norwegian woman who was given a prison sentence for extramarital sex after she had reported being raped while on a visit to Dubai has been pardoned and told she is free to leave the country.
Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, had been awaiting the hearing of an appeal against the 16-month sentence, handed down this month after a court in the Gulf emirate found her guilty of having sex outside marriage, drinking and making false statements.
She was told on Sunday that officials had dropped the case, and her passport was returned. "I have my life back," Dalelv told the Associated Press. "This is a great day."
This is good news, but the fact that she was ever treated like that in the first place tells us that Dubai simply is not a civilised society or a place we can do business with. And if they want to be treated as anything other than a pariah nation, they need to change the laws which punish rape victims.
