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February 21, 2008

Saudi Religious Police Under World Scrutiny Again


by Rohan Parker

The religious police of Saudi Arabia are in the line of fire yet again, with a renewed outcry about their blunderous attempts to enforce the country’s oppressive social policies.

The new controversy revolves around an American businesswoman who, whilst working on a project in Saudi Arabia, had a coffee in a Starbucks with one of her male colleagues. Saudi police arrested the woman for being in public with a man who was not a close family relative and took her to jail, though she was not kept long.

The woman, known only at this stage as Yara, has drawn much media attention within Saudi, one writer labeling the arrest which occurred on February 4 as ‘an abduction’. The issue has sparked local human rights groups to demand some form of explanation from the religious police, and a U.N official has stated that the incident constitutes as harassment.

A statement was released in a Saudi newspaper on Tuesday, in which the religious police stated that the actions of the officers were completely justifiable.

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