Ganging up on Saudi Vice

A few months ago there were troubling rumors making the rounds about turning the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (AKA Saudi Vice) into a full fledged ministry. As if these hard line extremists should have even more power than they already have. The prospect looked bleak to me. I saw what little hope I had of seeing this institution abolished withering in front of my eyes.

Then one day a brave brave lady dared challenge the mighty Saudi Vice. And suddenly the dam broke. That's the thing about Saudi society. Change takes a long time to come, but when it does come (usually triggered by a tragedy) it cascades through society at an amazing pace. It happened years ago when tragedy broke out in a Makkah school for girls and a lack of safety precautions meant that a simple fire cost the lives of many innocent girls. The tragedy and the rage brought down the Presidency for Girls Education, and prompted the long sought after merging with the (then boys only) Ministry of Education into one monolithic entity. For months after, the newspapers and the media hounded dilapidated schools all over the kingdom.

Now its happening to Saudi Vice.

When a conformist sad excuse for a newspaper like Okaz prints something like this article (translated and published in English by Arab News) you just know that change is in the air. Even the Shoura Council has taken up kicking the down on their luck Saudi Vice.

You could almost feel sorry for them.

Not.

The Saudi people have finally spoken up. We no longer want a Big Brother-like institution to tell us what is moral and what is not. Change now, or be brought down smashing into the ground.



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Saudi People vs Religion Police (Round 1)

Arab News reports on this Saudi first:

The Court of Grievances in Riyadh yesterday postponed until July 2 the first ever compensation lawsuit against a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice filed by a Saudi woman after commission members failed to respond to a court summons.

Al-Lahem is representing a mother and daughter who were stopped by commission members in 2004 in front of a Riyadh shopping center. They accused the women, who were waiting in their car together with their driver, of not conforming to customs of decency.

As you can imagine I'm watching this very closely, and I have to say that it fills my heart with joy that this brave lady is not willing to back off despite the setbacks. I remain only cautiously optimistic though. Should the Saudi Vice lose this case then it would set a precedent. The flood gates would open on full blast and somewhere out there a boombox would be playing "Who Let the Dogs Out?". It would signal that the Mutaweens are no longer above the law and are in fact answerable to it. Are they really going to let go of all that power without a fight?

Attacks on Religious Police Increase

Al Watan newspaper is reporting (Arabic) a sharp increase in reported assaults on members of the "Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" (AKA the religious police), ranging from verbal abuse to assault using sharp weapons. Last year 21 confirmed cases had been reported.

First of all I do not, and have never ever, condoned violence against anyone no matter how repulsive I find them (I'm a hippy pacifist).

Yet these sort of incidents are indicative that the Saudi populace is chafing under the iron tight control of the religious police. While many of its defenders liken it to the "Vice Police" units in other countries, what they don't tell you is that unlike those peace keepers the Saudi Vice Squad (Riyadh Vice! Queue in 80's TV theme music! Starring Don Johnson!) have almost unlimited power when dealing with the public. Stories of assaults by the religious police on the unsuspecting public based on a slight suspicion are all too common place. And more than that, corruption runs high amongst its members. It's not unheard of for a mutawee to abuse his powers for personal gain.

The religious police have been steadily losing popularity (not that they were in any way popular from the start), especially after the popular backlash on extremism following the string of compound bombings a few years ago. These incidents (and I'm sure there are many more being hushed up) are just the tip of the ice berg. The religious police need to learn that while they might still have a place in a modern Saudi society, it won't be one of an enforcer of a narrow minded ideology.