Wil Saudi Arabia Curb the Morals Police?
This is a tiny little article in the Qatar Gulf Times:
New curbs on Saudi moral police: reports
AFP/Riyadh
Saudi Arabia will curb the powers of its religious police, a newspaper report said yesterday.
“The new system will set a mechanism for the field work of the committee’s men which hands over some of their specialisations to other state bodies, such as arrests and interrogations,” Al Hayat daily quoted religious police chief Sheikh Abdullatiff Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh as saying.
Agents of the body known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice will also be banned from carrying out “searches without prior approval from the governor”, he said.
Okaz daily also reported that the religious police agents will be prohibited from “standing at the entrances of shopping malls to prevent the entry of any person”, referring to attempts by agents to ban women who do not comply with the Islamic dress code and unmarried couples from entering malls.
Sheikh was appointed in January as the new chief of the religious police. Two weeks into his post, he banned volunteers from serving in the commission which enforces the kingdom’s Islamic rules.
In April he went further, prohibiting the religious police from “harassing people” and threatening “decisive measures against violators”.
In June, Sheikh came out strongly against one of his men who ordered a woman to leave a mall because she was wearing nail polish.
The woman had defied the orders as she filmed her argument with the policeman and posted it on YouTube.
2 Comments »
Leave a comment
Recent Comments
Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 
Intlxpatr :
Saudia Arabia seems to be moving in the direction of more civil liberties bit by bit , the death of their last crown prince Naif who was a staunch supporter of the conservative forces has removed a major obstacle facing the move .
I did not realize that Naif was a factor. I am all in favor of incremental progress; incremental progress has a greater chance of acceptance and builds a strong foundation for permanent change.
I know it sounds funny, but my time in Saudi Arabia was instrumental in forming my world view. I expected to hate it. I didn’t. I learned a lot, and was profoundly moved by the Saudi women – and men – I met. I think the most profound thing I learned – don’t laugh – was that women have fathers and brothers and sons who love them and want the best for them. They were some of the strongest proponents of changes – giving women the vote, allowing them to drive, getting rid of the laws that require her to be accompanied, etc. The fathers sent the women to the US or to England to be educated, and their brothers taught them to drive – often in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. There were women who did drive – dressed as men. Saudi Arabia was a revelation to me, one I’ve never forgotten.