“You’re not the boss of me,” a Saudi girl declared to a member of the
Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or muttaween, in
a video posted on YouTube that sparked debate inside and outside the Kingdom
over the role of the religious police.
The video appeared to show an argument between the girl and a member of
the muttaween after he stopped her at a mall in Riyadh and told her to go home
because of her manicured nails, lipstick, and strands of hair visible beneath
her headscarf.
“You don’t see a strand of hair from other girls while you are showing
off your manicure in a public venue,” the muttawa member said. “It is my duty you tell you this.”
“You can’t forbid me from wearing nail polish,” said the girl. “The government has banned you from coming
after us. Your job is to give advice to
people, then leave them be.” She then
called over mall security for assistance.
The video sparked heated debate about the role and tactics of the
religious police, a force of approximately 3.500 members who patrol the streets
of Saudi to enforce prayer time, conservative dress, gender segregation, and
other Islamic edicts. Many more
volunteers and vigilantes reinforce the body’s ranks.
Supporters of the girl argued the muttaween acted “uncivilized” and the
girl had done nothing wrong. Eman
al-Nafjan, who blogs at Saudiwoman, wrote, “From the very beginning, the man
disrespectfully shouts at her… The CPVPV are portrayed as sacred and the
embodiment of how Islam was at the time of the Prophet. However, everything
I’ve ever read shows otherwise. The way a CPVPV sheikh struts around malls with
a fancy cloak on his shoulders and two subordinates flanking him, enjoying the
atmosphere of fear their entrance causes and sometimes going as far as
terrorizing people, is not the way I’ve read that the Prophet behaved.”
Others argued she was improperly dressed and abused technology to
distort the interaction.
The muttaween later announced it filed a formal complaint against the
girl for posting the video on YouTube.
King Abdullah recently began to reform the feared religious police
after it faced harsh criticism for the way it spoke to people and a 2002
incident where commission members stopped schoolgirls from fleeing a burning
building and hindered rescue efforts because they were not properly dressed.
Around 15 girls died and 50 were injured in the flames. Among other changes, he appointed a moderate
to lead the force and banned car chases.
According to Reuters, earlier this year, a video of the religious
police attacking a family outside a shopping mall in Riyadh was posted on
YouTube, getting more than 180,000 hits and generating strong criticism.
I asked a lot of girls about their interactions with the religious
police and got mixed responses. “Before, they were uneducated and spoke
harshly to people,” one Saudi girl said.
Today, they must meet certain requirements and are more professional,
she said.
Another disagreed. “They are not
good people,” said the second girl. “The
way they talk to you makes me feel uncomfortable. It's not very nice and sometimes I just don't want to go out because of it.”
I had only one interaction with them, when we were at the gates of an
all-girls’ university and they drove by, yelling, “Cover your head!” But there
were times, like the first night we were in Riyadh and walking around on the
streets, where they left us—a mixed group of boys and girls, obviously Western
and assumingly unmarried—alone.
There is also a difference between the letter of the law and
practice. While certain things are not
necessarily banned or mandated, muttaween members, and vigilantes in
particular, are known to enforce stricter standards of conservative dress and
religious practice than is required.
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