Mick Hartley

Reading about the activities of the Saudi Religious Police, aka the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, is always instructive. But what are we to make of this?

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice denied yesterday the charges made in a local newspaper that its members had exceeded the limits in their treatment of a woman student and humiliated her in public.

Speaking to Arab News, Ahmad Qasim Al-Ghamdi, director of the commission’s branch in Makkah, said that the commission’s act merely protected the honor of the student and her family. He dismissed the charges in the media as “contrary to facts.”

The Makkah-based Arabic daily, An-Nadwa, reported yesterday that the commission publicly humiliated a young woman while she was waiting in her car outside a school in the Al-Zahir district in order to pick up her brother’s children several days ago.

Her family driver was in the car. The commission members arrested the driver, accusing him of having committed disgraceful acts with the woman. They ordered her to get out of the car and attempted to forcibly take her purse and mobile phone in front of bystanders, the newspaper reported.

That certainly sounds humiliating for the poor woman. So – what was her crime?

Giving the commission’s version of the story, Al-Ghamdi said, “What really happened was that the commission members found an Indian driver committing a disgraceful act with the young woman. They stopped him and he confessed to the sins he was committing. The members took him away and allowed the woman to leave the place without doing anything to jeopardize her dignity. However, they took her identity card and called her brother to inform him of the developments. He asked them to punish the driver and promised to send someone to collect the car and his sister’s identity card. In fact, the role of the commission ended with the handing of the driver to police. But, shortly afterward, the commission was surprised by a man, who claimed to be the student’s brother-in-law, threatening to take action against the commission members.” […]

“There is no basis for the charge that the commission members smeared her reputation by acting in public. On the other hand, the false charge (against the commission members) aims at spoiling the good name of the commission. The young woman was allowed to go home without any action taken against her and without having her identity exposed,” Al-Ghamdi said.

The commission chief wondered how the young woman’s relatives could claim that the commission’s “excesses” had humiliated the whole family as highlighted by the the newspaper report. “How can they say that the commission members exceeded the limits when they only detained the driver who was behaving in a disgraceful manner? The commission’s act was only to protect the honor of the young woman and her family from the driver who worked for them,” he said.

And that, information-wise, is that.

We read first of the driver having “committed disgraceful acts with the woman”. Call me prurient, but the phrase conjures images of the two of them at it like dogs in heat on the back seat, with horrified passers-by watching as the car rocked back and forth in time to the rhythm of their passion. But knowing what we know of Saudi Arabia, we have to admit that this is not even remotely plausible. Especially outside a school, waiting to pick up her brother’s children. So – a kiss perhaps? A bit of a cuddle? It’s possible, I suppose, but again very unlikely.

Later we read that it’s the driver alone who was “behaving in a disgraceful manner”. No mention of the woman. Of course the whole story is predicated on the notion that the woman, merely a conduit for male desires, has no will of her own, and having been humiliated – or saved from humiliation, depending on who you believe – she’s handed over to her brother like a stray dog caught trespassing in a neighbour’s garden. But now we’re led to believe that the wretched driver was doing unspeakable things – a quick one off the wrist before the kiddies appeared? – independently of the woman.

In the absence of any indication of what the disgraceful behaviour might have been, we’re none the wiser. But knowing what we know of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and in the light of the local newspaper accusation of excessive zeal, I think we can draw some reasonable conclusions; namely that the woman was sitting innocently in the car with the driver, and that that in itself constituted the disgraceful act – the act of khulwa, seclusion with an unrelated woman. It’s something they’re keen on – or rather, not in the least keen on.

Just another day for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, bringing morality to the mean streets of Saudi Arabia.