ST. THOMAS GRADUATE FACES LASHING IN SAUDI ARABIA!

The Insite met a local attorney Tuesday who said this was worth posting.

It's about a woman who attended college here in Houston at St. Thomas.

When she graduated her associates said she went back home to Saudi Arabia.

But what she longed for was some simple privacy like driving her car alone.

She did that and now faces a brutal lashing in the foreign kingdom.

Her friends in Houston are angry and trying to find ways to stop it. Here's the latest from her Houston based friend Nivien Saleh published in the Atlantic:

Remember Shaima Jastaniah, the Saudi woman who made international headlines in September by being condemned to ten lashes for driving a car through the coastal city of Jeddah?

King Abdallah pardoned her personally.

But it now turns out that she may be lashed after all.

On Saturday, November 12, she was served with an official notice that, notwithstanding the royal pardon, she will be flogged unless she wins a legal appeal in mid-December.

She has kept this private, hoping to resolve it quietly, until now.

Her quiet options seemingly exhausted, Shaima called me and asked me to help tell her story. "I want to be able to drive, just like I did back in the States," she told me.

"And I want other women to be able to do the same. It's a basic human right."

Her only offense was driving while female.

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed behind the steering wheel, this is a serious breach of public order.

Although Shaima now lives in Jeddah, she had spent many years in Houston, Texas, where she became my student and friend.

In 2000, at age 23, she arrived with her husband, who worked towards a license in accounting, and two young children.

In 2007, she enrolled in the Master of Liberal Arts program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, concentrating in international studies, because she wanted to understand the values, dynamics, and contradictions of Middle Eastern countries.

I taught her in four courses and came to know her well.MORE ON SAUDI WOMEN AND THE ARAB SPRINGMax Fisher: Still No Political Rights, but Political InfluenceTariq Al Haydar: A Quiet Step Forward for WomenMax Fisher: Old 'Educational' Flyer Warns Women of 'Dangers'Ed Husain: Why Saudi Women's Rights Are Still So BadMax Fisher: Could Saudi Women's Rights Finally Improve? Shaima fit right into Houston society.

Texans are larger than life, and so is she. Discard your images of the veiled female Arab: Her dedication to Islam is sincere she recently completed the hajj to Mecca but she is not demure and does not attempt to fade into the background.

When she enters a room, you notice.Though she is not one to seek the limelight, Shaima freely speaks up in front of others when an issue matters to her.
And she has strong ideas of what is just and fair.There is no doubt that her time in Houston changed her. I saw her grow intellectually and come to recognize that, deep inside, she was a passionate individualist who saw life as full of possibilities.Her marriage, which had been arranged, did not survive her personal development.

In 2010, when she returned to Saudi Arabia, diploma in hand, she was on her own. As is customary in situations like hers, she moved back in with her parents.

In Houston, Shaima drove a luxurious black BMW X5, which she shipped back to the Kingdom upon her return.

Remember Shaima Jastaniah, the Saudi woman who made international headlines in September by being condemned to ten lashes for driving a car through the coastal city of Jeddah? King Abdallah pardoned her personally. But it now turns out that she may be lashed after all.

On Saturday, November 12, she was served with an official notice that, notwithstanding the royal pardon, she will be flogged unless she wins a legal appeal in mid-December.

She has kept this private, hoping to resolve it quietly, until now. Her quiet options seemingly exhausted, Shaima called me and asked me to help tell her story.

"I want to be able to drive, just like I did back in the States," she told me. "And I want other women to be able to do the same.

It's a basic human right.

"Her only offense was driving while female. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed behind the steering wheel, this is a serious breach of public order.

Although Shaima now lives in Jeddah, she had spent many years in Houston, Texas, where she became my student and friend.