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Saudis Troubled by ‘Vice Police’ Scandals

Saudis are getting increasingly disturbed by reports regarding misconduct on the part of what is known as the Saudi “religious police.”
 
Recently, several cases have been published in the local media highlighting cases of maltreatment of civilians, and fueling discontent with their conduct.
 
The force is employed by a governmental body called the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
 
The commission is tasked with ensuring the public is adhering to Islamic law, or Shari’a. The religious police patrols public places to ensure women are dressed modestly, that men and women do not mix in public and that public prayers are attended.
 
The unprecedented trial of three members of Saudi Arabia’s religious police was postponed on Saturday. The three suspects were detained for their alleged involvement in the death of a man who was arrested at the beginning of June after he was seen with a woman who was not his relative.
 
Ahmad Al-Balawi died in custody shortly after his arrest by the religious police in the northern city, Tabuk. It is suspected that abuse in custody caused his death.
 
Women are not allowed to drive under Saudi law and they can only get into a car with a relative such as a father, a son, a brother or a husband. After his death it was reported that Al-Balawi, who was working as a driver to boost his pension, was asked by the family to drive the woman home.
 
The deceased’s family said he was a healthy man at the time of his arrest.
 
The trial is the first of its kind in the kingdom and comes amid an increasing feeling of resentment towards the commission.
 
The Al-Balawi case was the latest in a series of similar incidents that have made it into the headlines in the Saudi kingdom.
 
Wajiha Al-Huweidar, a female Saudi journalist and women’s rights activist, said the authorities have given the Saudi media a freer hand over the past year. As a result, more stories regarding the commission’s harassment of civilians have been reported.
 
“Now, intellectuals and people who read the newspapers have started to have bad feelings about them,” Al-Huweidar told The Media Line. “They feel they have power over everybody and that they need to be stopped.”
 
Al-Huweidar, who has been outspoken against the government, said she has been stopped and harassed by the religious police many times and ordered to don a face veil, which she does not wear.
 
“I call them criminals with a license,” she says.
 
This sentiment is more prevalent among educated Saudis and less so among the lower classes. The resentment towards the religious police is beginning to filter down to the less-educated segments of Saudi society in some areas, but many feel reliant on them to tell them what to do, as it absolves them from taking responsibility for their own behavior, Al-Huweidar explained.
 
The Interior Ministry issued a statement in which it acknowledged that investigations were taking place regarding the behavior of some of its members, but downplayed their significance.
 
“There are two incidents, no more and no less,” the statement said. “The preliminary investigation has proved that there was no action from the commission that caused deaths.”
 
The statement said the matter has been referred to the judiciary. The ministry urged the media to avoid tainting the entire organization.
 
The reports about the commission have generated a discourse in the Saudi media.
 
Muhammad Al-Harafi, a Saudi academic and writer wrote an opinion piece in the Saudi daily Al-Watan last week, in which he urged the media to be cautious and not to wage an unjustified attack on the commission.
 
“The commission’s work is in the best interest of society,” he wrote. “The commission is not above Islamic law or beyond accountability and every citizen has the right to raise their voice if he feels they are committing injustice… however, they must do this for the benefit of the commission and the nation,” he wrote.