40-year-old Kenyan woman, Esther Wanja Muthoni, has been sentenced to 100 lashes in Saudi Arabia for having a child out of wedlock. She is the mother of five children. She gave birth to a son in Saudi Arabia in August 2025. After this the hospital staff informed the police. The police detained him and later filed a case against him. A Riyadh court convicted him in October of having affairs outside marriage. Muthoni has been trying to return to Kenya with her younger son Abudi for a year, but has been unable to do so due to legal action. Now the court has sentenced him to stay out of the country for one year along with 100 lashes. Till now, information regarding the date of flogging has not been revealed. Fell in love with an Egyptian man, left the country Muthoni was working as a domestic help in Saudi Arabia through a company called Mahara Human Resources. During this time, she fell in love with an Egyptian man, Mahmoud. She became pregnant from this relationship. Later Mahmood left Saudi Arabia. In August 2025, Muthoni gave birth to a son in the company’s staff residence. His supervisor took him to the hospital, where the employees informed the police. During interrogation, Muthoni told that the child’s father had left the country. After his release, he was not able to find a place to live back in the company’s accommodation. A shelter home also refused to keep him. There was no help even from the Kenyan Embassy. She was forced to live at a petrol pump in Riyadh. Many other migrant women were also waiting there with their children to return to their country. Not every woman is punished for giving birth to a child out of wedlock. According to a New York Times investigation, many women in Saudi Arabia who give birth to a child out of wedlock do not face any kind of legal action. The newspaper spoke to many such women, who said that they did not receive any punishment because of this. It is not clear why action was taken in Muthoni’s case. There is also no mention of action being taken against the child’s father in the court’s decision. In Saudi Arabia, children of women who give birth out of wedlock often do not get birth certificates. Due to this it becomes difficult for them to travel and return to their country. The punishment of flogging was banned in 2020. Saudi Arabia’s legal system is based on Islamic law i.e. Sharia. There, having physical relations without marriage is considered a crime. However, there is no written criminal law in the country. In such cases, judges give verdicts based on their interpretation of Sharia. Because of this, it is difficult to decide what punishment will be given for which behaviour. In the year 2020, Saudi Arabia had decided to abolish the punishment of flogging for some crimes. But this change did not apply to those crimes whose punishment is considered fixed in Sharia. These include crimes like physical relations outside marriage and drinking alcohol. Muthoni was sentenced to 100 lashes based on an interpretation of this religious law. During punishment, the women are made to sit and dressed and are hit on the body with a bamboo stick. However, it is difficult to ascertain how often flogging is imposed in such cases in Saudi Arabia. The decisions of the courts there are usually not made public.
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सऊदी- बिना शादी मां बनने पर 100 कोड़े की सजा: एक साल से बेटे के साथ देश में फंसी, घर लौटने की कोशिश भी नाकाम
