Religious police in Saudi Arabia arrest mother for sitting with a man

[Jacaylbaro]

 

A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh.

 

Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's “Mutaween” police.

 

Her story offers a rare first-hand glimpse of the discrimination faced by women living in Saudi Arabia. In her first interview with the foreign press, Yara told The Times that she would remain in Saudi Arabia to challenge its harsh enforcement of conservative Islam rather than return to America.

 

“If I want to make a difference I have to stick around. If I leave they win. I can't just surrender to the terrorist acts of these people,” said Yara, who moved to Jeddah eight years ago with her husband, a prominent businessman.

 

Her ordeal began with a routine visit to the new Riyadh offices of her finance company, where she is a managing partner.

 

The electricity temporarily cut out, so Yara and her colleagues — who are all men — went to a nearby Starbucks to use its wireless internet.

 

She sat in a curtained booth with her business partner in the café's “family” area, the only seats where men and women are allowed to mix.

 

For Yara, it was a matter of convenience. But in Saudi Arabia, public contact between unrelated men and women is strictly prohibited.

 

“Some men came up to us with very long beards and white dresses. They asked ‘Why are you here together?'. I explained about the power being out in our office. They got very angry and told me what I was doing was a great sin,” recalled Yara, who wears an abaya and headscarf, like most Saudi women.

 

The men were from Saudi Arabia's Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a police force of several thousand men charged with enforcing dress codes, sex segregation and the observance of prayers.

 

Yara, whose parents are Jordanian and grew up in Salt Lake City, once believed that life in Saudi Arabia was becoming more liberal. But on Monday the religious police took her mobile phone, pushed her into a cab and drove her to Malaz prison in Riyadh. She was interrogated, strip-searched and forced to sign and fingerprint a series of confessions pleading guilty to her “crime”.

 

“They took me into a filthy bathroom, full of water and dirt. They made me take off my clothes and squat and they threw my clothes in this slush and made me put them back on,” she said. Eventually she was taken before a judge.

 

“He said 'You are sinful and you are going to burn in hell'. I told him I was sorry. I was very submissive. I had given up. I felt hopeless,” she said.

 

Yara's husband, Hatim, used his political contacts in Jeddah to track her whereabouts. He was able to secure her release.

 

“I was lucky. I met other women in that prison who don't have the connections I did,” she said. Her story has received rare coverage in Saudi Arabia, where the press has been sharply critical of the police.

 

Yara was visited yesterday by officials from the American Embassy, who promised they would file a report.

 

An embassy official told The Times that it was being treated as “an internal Saudi matter” and refused to comment on her case.

 

 

Tough justice

 

— Saudi Arabia’s Mutaween has 10,000 members in almost 500 offices

 

— Ahmad al-Bluwi, 50, died in custody in 2007 in the city of Tabuk after he invited a woman outside his immediate family into his car

 

— In 2007 the victim of a gang rape was sentenced to 200 lashes and six years in jail for having been in an unrelated man’s car at the time. She was pardoned by King Abdullah, although he maintained the sentence had been fair

 

 

HALKAN

[underdog]

If you're in a country, you have to live by its laws...whether you like it or not. Its not a democracy, its not liberal but IT'S THEIR LAW!

 

She sat in a curtained booth with her business partner in the café's “family” area, the only seats where men and women are allowed to mix.

 

For Yara, it was a matter of convenience. But in Saudi Arabia,

public contact between unrelated men and women is strictly prohibited.

Thats the LOCAL rules and if you don't like it you can hop, skip and jump you a$$ out of their country.

 

I don't think this is a matter of fairness, its a matter of respecting the rules traditions and laws of where ever it is you are.

 

Yara told The Times that she would remain in Saudi Arabia to challenge its harsh enforcement of conservative Islam rather than return to America.

Wouldn't it be more 'in her place' to go home and challenge the Patriot act?

[AfricaOwn]

Originally posted by underdog:

If you're in a country, you have to live by its laws...whether you like it or not. Its not a democracy, its not liberal but IT'S THEIR LAW!

 

I agree...You don't like it? You can hit the road

[Geel_jire]

^ True.

 

A prime example is polygamy, in the west it is against the law. if you are caught you will be prosecuted.

 

would that make them terrorists ????

 

some people only have a very narrow way of looking at things.

[winnie]

you guys are ridiculous. this isnt just customs and religion... in fact they have no basis to treat people the way they do on the basis of religion. they strip search her? for what? she is going to hell? why? the whole system in saudi is whacked, and not just for women.

if its the law, than how come the men who were with her didnt get similar punishment? i mean its the law right?

as messed up as i think the whole premise to have the mutaween for situations like this is, if they were even handed with their protocol i would probably agree with you and say "you know the rules".

but the things is, the rules dont apply to everyone the same way.

if this woman were a saudi national, she wouldnt have gotten this treatment and if she were philipino we'd never even hear of the story.

 

an unjust law doesnt deserve to be respected as a law and at some point, people do have to stand up and say something otherwise it won't change, and if you don't want to say it, i will. SAUDI ARABIA NEEDS TO CHANGE!!!for the good of the ummah.

 

 

plus, i think as muslims, it is our place to say/do something whenever muslims are either oppressing people or being oppressed and in this case its a little bit of both. i think its more heinous when muslim nations are unjust especially these punk saudis, because they are DIRECTLY manipulating the religion of Allah, and my prophet s (peace be upon him) reputation to do these heinous crimes.

 

and your example of polygyny doesnt stand up. the reason we cant practice polygyny here is that only one of the marriages would be considered valid, and in islam a secret or hidden marriage isnt considered valid. so we have no basis to cry if we get prosecuted unless your trying to challenge the law in and of itself and in that case i would say hold off on the second marriage until you've won that fight.

 

plus, youre conveniently ignoring the physical punishment this woman went through.

[Faarax-Brawn]

^L0L,You are so funny.

 

“If I want to make a difference I have to stick around. If I leave they win. I can't just surrender to the terrorist acts of these people,” said Yara, who moved to Jeddah eight years ago with her husband, a prominent businessman

OK,Thats so silly of her. Does she forget that,these terrorists run her country?

 

As for the topic,of course,its ridiculously silly to do such a thing,but rules,laws and regulations are what they are. If she knew the rules and she broke it,well,its her damned fault.

[winnie]

you guys are just focusing on the terrorist quote... which i agree, its a loaded term, but in the context of what she went through, what else would you call it?

she was working with male coworkers in a public place, she broke the rules okay there is a punishment. is it jail time? a ticket? no, she is stripped, beaten, forced to confess (to something probably much more lewd and obscene than what actually occured) and than as a sentence she is told she is going to hell... what part of the game is that? what is the point of that? i cant believe anyone would consider this "silly", she was beaten, stripped, and humiliated, for what? and she is only out of jail and telling her story because her husband has connections... THERE IS A BIGGER STORY UNDERLYING ALL THIS.

they can be ridiculously strict about the deen, thats fine, they can even unproportionately put more importance in one factor of the shariah at the expense of another, that's fine (not really, the shariah is whole, but you know where im going), but when they apply their laws for certain people in certain circumstances... thats unjust, even by the standards that they created. its their laws right? shouldnt they abide by it? i commend her for sticking around. the only way saudi arabia is going to change is from within, and ill venture to say, it won't change until MEN see it as necessary to change, and they wont unless more women vocalize the abuse they go through at the hands of the laws, which are supposedly there to protect them.

 

 

btw, did you guys conveniently ignore the part where it says she is from jordan and grew up in salt lake? she is as american as i am canadian.

[underdog]

TOBCFMF,

There's an underlying story for sure...but! its their ways, its not for an outsider to judge and criticize how they rule their country. Your borders, your rules, your SOVEREIGNTY.

 

She can stick around all she wants and she'll probably claim she's being picked on when they throw a 10 yr prison sentence on her.

 

Its like the Canadian guy who had a poppy pod in his luggage going thru dubai on transit and got thrown in Jail. He should have known the have a zero tolerance policy on that stuff. Its the law.

 

she broke the rules okay there is a punishment. is it jail time? a ticket? no, she is stripped, beaten, forced to confess (to something probably much more lewd and obscene than what actually occured) and than as a sentence she is told she is going to hell.

That's how they do it. they chop off heads and hands, they whip and they slap 10 yr sentences on small drug charges...these are local laws. as backward and archaic as they are, they still follow these rules, and you and any other outsider there should understand this.

 

EVERYONE knows Saudi laws are tough...what gives you (or her) the right to knock their laws when Canada has a Legal age of sexual consent of 14. and Europe has Jail-time for denying the holocaust?

[winnie]

for one thing, saudi is doing it in the name of my religion, and i dont think they have a right to.

another reason i believe more people should say something is because those supposed laws are only used against certain people. why werent the men subjected to the same treatment? more than likely if they were indian or african men, they would have been abused in jail, but because they are Saudi national Men, they get a free pass.

at the very least, they can pretend to follow their own laws.

and i do think people who live in a given country should have a say about its laws, even if they are not citizens. by working there, living there, raising a family there you are indirectly supporting the country, so why not say something.

the laws reflect the values and culture of a specific place, and the fact saudi has a muttaween obviously sends a message that the saudi culture values propriety and islamic etiquette. thats fine.

but how they go about enforcing those laws also shows they dont value women, and especially foreign women's, lives and rights. im not dogging them because i think their laws are archaic, im dogging them because their laws and the way they are enforced are UNJUST!!! there is a difference. even according to the laws they are supposedly following, THEY ARE UNJUST!!!

 

the two laws you just mentionned don't infringe on people's rights to the degree the mutaween do.

if im in saudi, and ask a strange man for direction, im tagged as indecent.

if im in saudi, and a man approaches me for a date, I am the one considered indecent, and in both scenarios can be subjected to interrogations and abuse by police. the shariah doesnt allow this. huddud (punishment) is given only when a crime has been confessed without duress, or there have been four witnesses who saw the act of indecency committed and i challenge you to find an ayah or hadith that says a man talking to a woman or vice versa deserves physical punishment.

 

yr examples are a little weak.

as muslims, we should say something when other muslims are being oppressed, or when muslims are oppressing innocent people so the degree of interaction with either nation is a little different.

canada's age of legal consent doesn't violate anyone's rights and as far as i can tell, officials aren't willy nilly about who they charge for sexual abuse and if they did, there is a forum for people to say something and challenge it. a more fitting example would have been the security certificate law, where canada will be able to hold secret trials and charge someone without presenting him, his lawyer, or the court with the evidence, all in the name of fighting terrorism. that deserves to be challenged, and it is, unsuccessfully so far, but people are trying to fight it.

about europe's holocaust law, i dont live in europe, nor do i devote alot of thought to the holocaust... i do care about human lives, and about how women are treated by my supposed muslim brothers.

[underdog]

You live in North America so you know about "Driving While Black" or DWB as the charge should be called.

 

You've heard of those "random searches" at the airport.

 

You've heard of "Racial profiling".

 

Racism, double and triple standards and unfairness are worldwide.

 

So whether its the Morality police in Saudi or homeland security at the US border, its still human beings...they're flawed and they have a bit of power to back up that flaw.

 

So in essence what you're trying to fix is human nature.

[Cara.]

So underdog, do you think black citizens should have tolerated apartheid South Africa's laws out of respect for that nation's sovereignty? Or blacks in North Africa, would you have told Rosa Parks that she should obey the law or move to another country?

 

Are you saying a citizen cannot challenge his/her country's laws if they are discriminatory?

[Som@li]

Waxaa dadka aduunku waxkale ku mashquulsan yihiin, nimankaasna waxaa laga raacay bahalkaas ilaalintiisa.

[Legend of Zu]

^^^ She is not a citizen, is she?

[winnie]

i have a problem with people using Allah's religion and the reputation of my prophet (peace be upon him) to oppress people. thats my main grip with saudi arabia and things there DO have to change.

 

there is racism in america and systematic racism that probably will never disappear, but alot of things have changed in hte past 5 decades because people challenged the laws and their applications; laws that were essentially unjust.

 

im not hoping for a utopia or trying to fix human nature. i think its human nature to want your life respected. funny thing is, its not just human laws, they are taking Allah's laws, and misapplying them!!! the purpose of shariah is to protect ppl, not terrorize them.

i commend anyone who stands up against injustice, in whatever form. she's doing more than i am sitting behind a computer screne.

 

plus i think any example you throw out at me will be completely disproportional to what is going on in saudi arabia. i think a more fitting comparison would be rural alabama in 1946 for a black man and a woman (of any class) or a non saudi man. whether you want to admit it or not, despite the regular injustices that occur here in north america, there at least exists a format where people can speak out against it. if everybody who suffered stayed quiet, things would be very different for you and I, and luckily people are still speaking out.

what you are suggesting, is that she, and everyone else who gets sh1tted on shld shut up and deal with it. i dont agree with that at all.

 

and i take this more personnally because, like i said numerous times, they are abusing Allah's religion to legitimize what they are doing, which is nothing more than oppression.

[Cara.]

^She's not? It seems like she's married to a Saudi man, has 3 Saudi children, lived there for 8 years, and plans to stick around. That would be considered sufficient to make her a citizen by most of the world. Maybe another thing she can bring up

 

Anyway, I think she would have an easier time challenging the system than many of the citizens actually.

 

“I was lucky.

I met other women in that prison who don't have the connections I did

,”

These "other women" are citizens whose voices won't be heard because they are not American-born wives of rich businessmen.