WHEN a Saudi religious policeman sauntered around an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples socialising illegally, he probably wasn’t expecting any trouble.
But when he approached a young, 20-something couple meandering through the park together, he received a humiliating whaling.
Religious police harrass a group of women
According to this report, the member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – the Saudi religious gestapo known locally as the Hai’a – asked the couple to confirm their identities and relationship to one another, as it is a crime in Saudi Arabia for unmarried men and women to mix.
For unknown reasons, the young man collapsed upon being questioned.
But the feisty young woman reacted by laying into the cop, punching him repeatedly, and leaving him to be taken to the hospital with bruises across his body and face.
Said Wajiha Al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women’s rights activist:
To see resistance from a woman means a lot. People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years. This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance.
She added:
The media and the Internet have given people a lot of power and the freedom to express their anger. The Hai’a are like a militia, but now whenever they do something it’s all over the Internet. This gives them a horrible reputation and gives people power to react.
Neither the religious police nor the Eastern Province police has made a statement on the incident, and both the names of the couple and the date of the incident have not been made public, but this week the incident was all over the Saudi media.
Nadya Khalife, the Middle East women’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch, added:
There is some sort of change taking place. There is clearly a shifting mentality regarding the male guardianship law and similar issues. More women are speaking out, there are changes within the government, there is a mixed university, the king was photographed with women, they want to allow women to work in the courts and there are changes within the justice ministry. So you can witness some kind of change unfolding but it’s not quite clear what’s happening and it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight.
This is not the first time that a religious cop has been attacked. Back in 2007, one was pepper-sprayed in the face by a young woman while her friend filmed it on a cellphone.
Hat tip: Yann
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 19th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Is there room for interpretation in the rules enforced by the Saudi religious police? Such discretion may allow sadists, bullies and other little Hitlers to swagger about making it up as they go along.
For once I find myself in agreement with the Pope:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3QqO.....0/Pope.jpg
May 19th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Good for her, I just hope she doesn’t get caught.
May 19th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Angie – If she was wearing a veil, how would they recognize her? I know, there are other ways, but I like to think that women forced to hide under a tent could use that to their advantage in bringing down the system that strips them of choice. It is too deliciously ironic and has locked into my brain.
May 19th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Nice
Hopefully this is only the beginning and the resistence to these puritanical psychopaths gains more momentumn
May 19th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
It takes a lot of courage to do that. She probably has more guts than I would.
May 19th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Good for her. Hopefully more women will follow. This puritanical, theocratic BS needs to stop.
May 19th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
@ Janstince
You don’t think this could cause thee nutter-rug-butters to BAN THE BURQUA!!! What delicious irony THAT would be…
Feel I must apologise, as a member of the male section of society, for the jelly-balled reaction of the man. She certainly has more guts then he did.
Hopefully the internet, if not banned by the BS brigade over there, will help liberate the poor sods.
May 19th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
I think it’s heavily restricted, Kev. Janstince, I didn’t think they all wore a full face covering over there. Doesn’t it depend on which version of tripe you follow?
May 20th, 2010 at 9:08 am
It has long been said that, “war makes strange bedfellows”. Saudi Arabia has been a supposed ally, before and since “desert freedom”. The US defended them against Saddam Hussein to protect the oil supply, the Saudi monarchy tolerates US bases to protect its wealth and sovereignty. It’s citizens and high officials resent US presence on the “holy” Saudi land. They abuse female US personnel for appearing in public without muslim garb. Women are not allowed to drive a motor vehicle. They trace funding of radical islamist groups with less than genuine zeal. Saudi Arabia, being a predominantly Sunni population is not at all pleased that Iraq is now in the hands of Shiite politicians, and has no illusions about Iran connections forming.
I applaud women standing up for themselves in Saudi Arabia, but, those offenses are not prosecuted as civil disobedience, they are treated as crimes against Allah, and she will probably die for her offense. I’m no prophet, but, I see an inescapable eventuality that Saudi Arabia will become a NATO battleground as well. Not good, because there inlies the holy city of Mecca. It will get seriously ugly.
NeoWolfe
May 20th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Religious copper gets punched out by a postbox – even Christian Police Association members couldn’t top that for divine justice!
May 21st, 2010 at 5:39 pm
She’s certainly got spunk. But then perhaps that’s why she…. Never mind.
May 22nd, 2010 at 3:05 am
Good for her, better for women … true justice. Don’t you find it easier to do something when wearing a mask?