Two mock trials over

Lawyers completed two mock trials and it was really an insight for me to see how they manoeuvred around cultural challenges and exposed arguments at its weakness. Both Team Prosecutor and Team Defence exhausted all arguments to convict/defend on moral crimes/ adultery.

A key challenge continues to be the tradition in jurisprudence that a man and woman in a room alone is accompanied by a third person, the devil. In Islam, we call this "helwat sahiya".

We are distinguishing "sins" from "illegality". We are identifying the elements of "helwat sahiya" and circumstances/ conditions that revoke it. We are distinguishing what rulings supersede others - there is a hierarchy and prevalence of certain rules in Shariah over others.

We are exposing the weaknesses in arguments pertaining to victim liability -- victim-blaming results in excusing rape OR permitting men's sexual access to "unworthy" women. A prosecutor cannot reconcile this effect with strict rules in Islamic law on sexual rights.