It seems to me that the Saudi religious police are becoming crazier with each passing year at the annual Janadriya festival held on the outskirts of Riyadh city. Last year they were up in arms that the festival was opened to families instead of females and males frequenting the event on totally different days. This year a member of the feared religious police went into the UAE stand to protest some of its contents but was forced to leave by national guards who are in charge of security at the week-long festivities. As he was chased out of the event hundreds of people cheered and applauded especially the women present at the event. A more bizarre incident has taken place at the festival this year when three Emirati men were forced out of the event on the grounds that they are extremely handsome, and will cause the young women at the event to fall for them. LOLOLOL. Absolutely crazy in my opinion. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder so how can anyone justify that a person is way too handsome or beautiful to be present at a public event. I had a request from brother Fuaad, who asked me to write a personal account on my experiences with the hai'a, (aka the mutawwa) or the religious police. In total I had around four altercations with them during my stay in the Kingdom. The first time I encountered them was during a trip to the Diera Souq to collect some clothes that I had purchased. The headquarters for the religious police is located down the road from the Diera Souq and hence they are always doing their rounds at the souq harassing customers and shop owners, in particular the abaya shop keepers who sell beautifully embellished, embroidered and bejeweled abayas. As soon as the mutawwa enter the souq area, the abaya shops close and the owners runaway. According to the religious police an abaya should be plain black with no beads or fancy cut work. Nevertheless whenever I frequented the souq I always came across the most stunning abayas with a variety of styles, designs and patterns to choose from. Getting back to my first altercation, the two robed gentlemen came up behind me whilst in the store. They greeted me and then said " Gatty wajhak" which means cover your face. I replied by saying that I am not a Saudi woman but rather a South African woman to which the one gentleman replied that I am a liar. He assumed that my father was Saudi and my mother was of another nationality. Then I took out my Iqama that had all my details and after both of them scrutinized the information on the iqama card closely, they simply walked away. My second altercation with the religious police was at the Janadriya festival whilst I was accompanied by my mom. As we walked through the main gate of the festival area, two members of the hai'a walked beside us and asked us to cover our faces. We pretended that we did not understand what they saying and simply continued walking on. Eventually they couldn't follow us any longer and thus disappeared. During a shopping trip to Hayat Mall we were approached by a group of religious police who insisted that I cover my face. Once again mom and I pretended that we did not understand what they are saying and continued doing our shopping. An hour or so later we bumped into them again in an accessory shop. We thought they came into the store to harass us again however, they came into the store to harass the Filipino gentleman who works in the store. They asked the man to close his top most shirt button as his chest hair is slightly exposed and will cause females to be attracted to him...What nonsense... Absolute rubbish in my opinion. When the robed men left the store the friendly Filipino man told us that almost everyday he was being harassed by the same group of religious police. The owner of the store has apparently filed many complaints with the management of the mall but no action has been taken thus far.
On another occasion I was in the Viss store in Hayat mall doing shoe shopping prior to my vacation abroad. I was the only female in the store along with the shop manager who I knew on a personal level. Suddenly I heard a man saying " Assalamu3alaykum". The shop manager replied. I was too engrossed in choosing my perfect pair of shoes and I never thought that the man was actually speaking to me. Again I heard a man saying " Assalamu3alaykum" in a louder or harsher tone of voice. So naturally I turned around and there they were , two tall bearded and robed gentlemen accompanied with a member of the police force. I greeted them and then the man started yelling at me, saying that I should cover my eyes completely by pulling my scarf over it as my eyes are an attraction for men to stare at me. He was also highly upset that my head scarf had a pink beaded border. Take note that on this occasion I was fully veiled from head to toe with the exception of just my eyes showing. The younger of the two gentlemen spoke perfect English. So I switched from Arabic to English and yelled back at him saying the following," In which hadith is it written that I should be covering my eyes completely. How do you expect me to see where I'm walking. Also I am fully clothed and no where is it written that I can not wear a pink bordered scarf. I am a Muslim woman doing my shopping in peace and you have no business to follow me around the mall. Why are you staring into my eyes in the first place. Lower your gaze." He then instructed the policeman to take me down town to the police station. I said," I am not afraid to go down town to the police station. Come lets go." Then I called up the head of the security department at the hospital I worked at and handed over the phone to the policeman. Within a few seconds, all three gentleman simply disappeared. A friend of mine residing in Jeddah related a story to me about the hai'a who always harassed his friend at his shop during salaah. Sometimes whilst the call for prayer is being announced customers are still paying for their belongings as they do not wish to wait as all shops in the Kingdom close during the times of prayer. A member of the religious police would then go to this shop to threaten the man with jail for not closing the shop promptly. So one day the shop owner was friendly towards the religious police and asked him if he had a wife and daughter to which the man replied in the affirmative. The shop owner gave the bearded man a dress for his wife and daughter and after that all the harassment and threatening stopped. However, whenever there was a function and the wife and daughter required a new dress, the bearded man would miraculously pop up again to get free clothing from the shopkeeper. The hospital environment I worked in was of course a normal western orientated facility where the hai'a were not allowed to carry out their bizarre behavioural activities. Having said that on a few occasions I had patients that were members of the religious police and they refused to take any help from me. They would stand on the side of the window where I could not see them and they would insist that I call a male pharmacist to assist them. There were many occasions where there were no male staff present on the shift. I always adorn the headscarf, but many of these men would preach to me urging me to cover my face completely. One man said that I should not wear nail polish. As a Muslim I know that nail polish is not a part of my culture from a religious perspective. I always adorn henna. So I then landed up arguing with the man for a good few minutes explaining to him that I am wearing henna and not nail polish. Personally I do not agree with the concept of the religious police in Saudi. Many of them are uneducated and clueless with regards to an Islamic way of life. There were also numerous reports that I came across stating that many members of the religious police are in actual fact ex prisoners or men who were convicted of some crime during their life time. The Prophet Muhammed (saw) never forced people into Islam. He advised them but not badgered and harassed them. Religion is purely individualistic. Your level of faith and belief is solely between you and your Creator.Forcing someone to do anything produces no results. Guidance comes from God Almighty and when a person wishes to change themselves from within voluntarily then only can change be brought about. Whilst it is valuable to have lectures and talks on Islamic literature, it is downright ridiculous to have a group of men controlling the way society, dresses, thinks and functions in totality. It is equally bizarre to implement a set of rules that has no basis in Islam in the first place.
