Saudi Arabia: Religious police hit back over woman held in cafe

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia’s religious police hit back on Tuesday at critics of their arrest of a businesswoman in a Starbucks cafe for mixing with a male colleague, threatening to sue a journalist.

The powerful Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, charged the Saudi woman was making ‘suspicious gestures’ while in the man’s company and broke the law on several counts, in a statement published in the local press.

The commission ‘reserves the right of its members ... to claim their legal right from columnist Abdullah Al Alami who accused them of abduction,’ it said.

The religious police, commonly known as Muttawa, said Alami, a columnist for the daily Al Watan, had also accused them of strip-searching the woman, ‘which is no less reprehensible than ... the crime of kidnapping’.

The businesswoman, a 40-year-old financial consultant, was quoted in the English-language daily Arab News on February 5 as saying she was detained and strip-searched by the Muttawa the previous day.

She had been sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop with an unrelated man, an activity which is taboo in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia.

The woman, named only as Yara, said she was holding a business meeting with the man in a branch of Starbucks in Riyadh, in a section reserved for families.

Yara, a mother of three, said she was taken to a Riyadh prison, strip-searched and forced to sign a confession to having been caught alone with an unrelated man.

She said the Muttawa released her several hours later after her husband intervened. The man with whom Yara had coffee, an unnamed Syrian financial analyst, was also arrested.

Newspapers said the man was released the next day.

In its statement, the 5,000-strong religious police accused Yara of violating both the law and Islamic tenets by flying unaccompanied from Jeddah to Riyadh and sitting alone with an unrelated man in a public place in a section reserved for families.

The religious police said its members went to the coffee shop after receiving information that the woman did not have her head covered and was wearing make-up and making ‘suspicious gestures’ while in the man’s company.

A UN expert on women’s rights said last week at the end of a visit to Saudi Arabia that she had heard accounts of serious discrimination against women and abuses by the Muttawa.

‘The Muttawa are said to be responsible for serious human rights abuses in harassing, threatening and arresting women who ‘deviate from accepted norms’,’ said Yakin Erturk, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, citing Yara’s arrest during her visit.

Women in Saudi Arabia, which applies a rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism, face a host of constraints, including a ban on driving.

They are forced to cover from head to toe in public, and can not mix with men other than relatives or travel without written permission from their male guardian.

(AFP)

Saudi Arabia: Don’t waste women’s potential – Erturk

RIYADH - A visiting UN official called Wednesday for greater participation of Saudi women in society so as to avoid "an incredible waste of human resources here."

Yanik Erturk, the special United Nations rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on Violence against Women, said at a press conference here that while her 10-day visit to the Kingdom has given her hope about improvement in the condition of Saudi women, more is needed to be done.

"I have met many high-level educated women, and I see an incredible waste of human resources here," said Erturk. "Half of society can't contribute."

Ertuk noted that women's access to education, which has resulted in the significant improvement in the literacy rates for women in a relatively short period of time, was a positive improvement achieved by the Saudi government.

"Women are enjoying free and close to full access to primary, secondary and tertiary education, where the ratio of girls attending school is equal to or higher than that of boys," she said.

However, Erturk said that women still have limited access to higher education in some fields.

Erturk's findings also concluded that in the public sector, with the exception of participation in the health, education and social fields, women still lack access to employment in ministries such as the Ministry of Justice and Interior and they are excluded from decision-making positions.

She noted in particular the absence of women members in the Council of Ministers, Shoura Council, and on the board of the Human Rights Commission.

During the press conference, Erturk addressed the need for judicial reform, the overall participation of women in society, work force and decision-making, violence against women and the conditions of foreign female workers.

"There is urgency for judicial reform," said Erturk. "The judiciary reform which is already in progress is important to bridge the gap between traditions, law and what is being implemented."
The special UN rapporteur also addressed the issue of codification of law and the need for establishing a family law, looking into guardianship, and women's access to the judicial system.

Erturk noted progress in Saudi media coverage of women's issues. "The media is the most important element in supporting women's issues," she said. "I am impressed by the coverage women's issues are getting, and encourage it to go further."

"I congratulate the media for engaging in the issue of violence against women but more has to be dome to increase awareness."

Erturk also expressed her gratitude to the Saudi government for inviting her to the Kingdom and also for all the support they provided her during her visit.

"The Saudi women I met had diverse voices, aspirations and demands," said Erturk. "Among the Saudi women I met there were those who have expressed contentment and satisfaction with their lives, while others have raised concerns of serious levels of discriminatory practices against them."

"I also met foreign women married to Saudi nationals and migrant domestic workers who face additional vulnerabilities."

Erturk spoke about her visits to the safe houses for domestic workers and the Social Protection centers in Jeddah and Dammam.

"I met with many migrant workers in safe houses and hundreds in Riyadh prison, this morning" said Erturk. "I believe that both the sending countries and the host country have obligations to ensure protective measures for the safety of these workers who are uninformed, uneducated and mostly illiterate themselves," said Erturk.

The behavior of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice grabbed Erturk's attention during her visit to the Kingdom. "These law enforcers are responsible for maintaining morality in public places. Although they are required to act in concert with the police and under certain limitations with respect to arrest and detention of people, they reportedly often act independently; as a result they are said to be responsible for serious human right abuses....," she said.

During her 10-day visit to the Kingdom, Erturk did not meet with the Commission or with Yara, the businesswoman who was arrested by the Commission for having coffee at Starbucks in Riyadh with her male colleague.

By Susan Zawawi from the Saudi Gazette

Saudi Arabia: Women complain of discrimination, abuse

RIYADH - A UN expert on women’s rights said on Wednesday she had heard accounts of serious discrimination against women and abuses by religious police during a visit to ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia.

There also appears to be no timeframe for lifting a ban on women’s driving, Yakin Erturk, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, told reporters at the end of a 10-day visit to the Muslim kingdom.

Erturk said that while some Saudi women she met during her visit at the government’s invitation expressed satisfaction with their lives, ‘others have raised concerns of serious levels of discriminatory practices against women that compromise their rights and dignity as full human beings.’

Others related ‘the domestic abuse they systematically encounter with little prospect of redress.’

Erturk said that progress had been made in women’s access to education, but there has been no comparable increase in their participation in the labour force, mainly due to sex segregation in the workplace, and they are ‘particularly excluded from decision-making positions.’

She said many of her interlocutors complained about the behaviour of the religious police, or Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice who are commonly known as Muttawa and enforce a strict Islamic moral code.

‘The Muttawa are said to be responsible for serious human rights abuses in harassing, threatening and arresting women who ‘deviate from accepted norms’,’ the UN official said, citing an incident reported during her visit in which they arrested a businesswoman for sitting in a coffee shop with a male colleague in Riyadh.

Erturk said she had not met any officials from the religious police during her visit, which followed a report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women which stated that women in the kingdom were the victims of systematic and pervasive discrimination across all aspects of social life.

Women in Saudi Arabia, which applies a rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism, face a host of constraints, including the driving ban. They are forced to cover from head to toe in public, and cannot mix with men other than relatives or travel without written permission from their male guardian.

Erturk, who met officials and human rights groups, said she had raised the driving ban during her talks but did not feel there was a specific timeframe for solving the issue.
What matters in enabling women to drive is that this would give them freedom to move and work, she said.

Erturk, who will report to the UN Human Rights Council, said recently adopted judicial reforms which foresee the establishment of family courts, together with a draft law on domestic violence, were ‘promising initiatives,’ but more needed to be done to combat violence against women.

This includes adoption of a legal framework based on international human rights standards that would cover violence and family matters, establishment of a ‘national machinery for women’ to intervene in cases of violence, and ‘positive action policies and plans’ to empower women.

(AFP)

Saudi Arabia: U.N. Rights Expert Will Examine Violence Against Women

GENEVA — A U.N. rights expert will travel to Saudi Arabia next month to gather information about violence against women in the country, officials said Monday.

Yakin Erturk, the U.N. special investigator for violence against women, will visit the kingdom from Feb. 4-13 and meet with government and civil society representatives in Riyadh, Jeddah and Damam, according to a statement by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Last month, Saudi's King Abdullah pardoned a rape victim who had been sentenced to lashes and jail time for being in a car with a man who was not her relative. The case sparked international criticism over the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia, where strict interpretation of Islamic law gives men and women different rights with respect to education, marriage and participation in public life.

Earlier this month, Saudi officials told the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that the kingdom would likely lift the ban on women driving in the near future and was taking measures to address the issue of domestic violence.

A report last year by New York-based Human Rights Watch found many female foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are physically abused by their employers.