300 lashes for filing complaint

Human Rights Watch yesterday called on Saudi Arabia to quash a sentence of 18 months in jail and 300 lashes issued against a woman for filing harassment complaints without being accompanied by a male guardian.

Tribal custom and strict rules limit women's movement in the conservative Islamic state, where women are forbidden from driving.

Women can face action by the religious police if they are not accompanied in public by a male relative acting as a guardian.