Rape and Islamic Countries

Why is the rate of rape low in Islamic Sharia‑ruled countries? Is it real?

Because of my writing and as an outspoken activist against sexual violence against women, I have been digging into rape statistics for more than a decade. The Islamists’ claim is correct: on paper, rape numbers are low in countries under Islamic rule. But does reality say the same?

In Saudi Arabia, on paper the rape rate is extremely low—almost nonexistent. In 2019, only 8 people were punished for rape, and that punishment is inevitably the death penalty for zina. Meaning, on paper, the number of rapes in 2019 was just 8. Did Saudi Arabia really have only 8 incidents of sexual violence in 2019? Seriously?

Meanwhile, among the Bangladeshi women who are forced to return or flee back home from Saudi Arabia, about 60% to 70% report physical, mental, or sexual abuse. Thirty percent return pregnant. In 2019, around 1,600 Bangladeshi women returned home after being sexually abused in Saudi Arabia. This is only Bangladesh’s count. Women workers go there from many other countries, there are Saudi women themselves, and many women simply compromise with the abuse. If you still think Saudi’s rape statistics are true—then there is nothing more to say.

Women in Islamic‑ruled countries do not even dare to seek justice for rape. That is the reality. If they fail to prove it, the woman herself faces severe punishment. The rapist can instead blame the woman—claiming she provoked him by not observing purdah. If you examine the condition of women in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Indonesia’s Aceh province, there is abundant evidence of this, commonly known as an environment of impunity. On June 4, 2026, The Daily Star reported that a Bangladeshi woman in Saudi Arabia was repeatedly sexually abused in various forms. Her employer told her they had bought her. When she accused the employer’s son of rape, she herself was blamed. The police did not help her. Even after further rape, the police jailed her. There are hundreds, thousands of such cases.

Islamic Sharia rule is beautiful only in dreams, but in reality, statistics, and case studies, it is horrific. Where I live, if someone touches a child even with affectionate intent, the child’s guardian can file a case calling it sexual abuse. That is why sexual abuse numbers appear higher in statistics here. If a husband drags his wife to bed without her consent, that too appears in statistics as rape—something unimaginable in Saudi Arabia or any Islamic country. At the end of the day, it appears that rape is low in Islamic‑ruled countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Iran.