The appointment of a moderate to head the feared Saudi religious police has raised hopes that a more lenient force will ease draconian social constraints in the kingdom, but human rights activists remain sceptical. Less than two weeks into his post as chief of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Abdullatif Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh banned volunteers from serving in the commission, a move designed to curb the group’s most outrageous violations.
The volunteers, usually ultra-conservative and fundamentalist Muslims, have often been accused of abuse and violence against Saudis as they patrol the streets of the kingdom enforcing the strictest interpretations of Islam’s social traditions.
“Even the sight of a religious police car approaching fills us with feelings of fear and horror,” said Um Ibrahim, a Saudi mother, adding that since al-Sheikh’s appointment, “we are already seeing fewer patrols.” “We are very hopeful,” she said noting that even the number of messages posted by fellow citizens on social networks like Twitter, warning of abuses by the police have “almost disappeared” since al-Sheikh’s appointment by Saudi’s King Abdullah on January 13.
Al-Sheikh, a member of the kingdom’s most powerful religious family, is known for his moderate views on segregation.
In 2010, he backed a religious police official from the Saudi city of Mecca who said Islam does not categorically require segregation and that shops could remain open during prayer time. The religious police prevent women from driving; require them to shroud their hair and bodies in all-black, shapeless abayas; block public entertainment and force all commerce, from supermarkets to petrol stations, to come to a halt at prayer times, five times a day.
They have also been responsible for outrageous abuses and behaviour. In 2002, they reportedly prevented firemen from entering an all-girls school because of the segregation-of-sexes policy and blocked girls from escaping the fire because they were not wearing the obligatory veil. Fourteen girls were trampled to death and 50 others were injured in a stampede after the fire broke out.
Since his appointment, al-Sheikh has also announced his intention to establish a nation-wide call centre where all reported complaints regarding inappropriate social behavior can be verified. In the past, anonymous callers could randomly contact members of the religious police and make allegations of misbehaviour, a system that resulted in repeated false allegations and excessive responses by individual police officers.
Easily recognised by their long beards and white ‘dishdasha’ that fall to just above the ankle, Saudi’s religious force, known as the “Mutaween”, are often seen patrolling shopping malls and public spaces looking for violators of Islam’s rules for social engagement.
