March 11, 2002 Mecca girl's schools fire

March 11, 2002 Mecca girl's schools fire killed at least fourteen students but was especially notable for complaints made that Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving the burning building and hindered rescue workers because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress. As Hanny Megally, Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch put it: "Women and girls may have died unnecessarily because of extreme interpretations of the Islamic dress code. State authorities with direct and indirect responsibility for this tragedy must be held accountable." [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/03/15/saudia3801.htm Human Rights Watch. Saudi Arabia: Religious Police Role in School Fire Criticized] ]

Fire and controversy

According to Saudi press reports the blaze at Mecca Intermediate School No. 31 started at about 8:00 in the morning. Saudi newspapers also suggested that the school of 800 students was overcrowded, and may have lacked proper safety infrastructure and equipment, such as fire stairs and alarms. Fourteen young girls died from burns or smoke asphyxiation and more than 50 were injured. According to statements of parents, firemen, and the regular police forces present at the scene, the religious police forcibly prevented girls from escaping the burning school by locking the doors of the school from the outside, and barring firemen from entering the school to save the girls, beating some of the girls and civil defense personnel in the process. Members of the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), also known as Mutaween, would not allow the girls to escape or to be saved because they were 'not properly covered', and the mutaween did not want physical contact to take place between the girls and the civil defense forces for fear of sexual enticement. Human Rights Watch quoted a Civil Defense officer as saying,

Whenever the girls got out through the main gate, these people forced them to return via another. Instead of extending a helping hand for the rescue work, they were using their hands to beat us.

The CPVPV denied the charges of beating or locking the gates but the incident and the accounts of witnesses were reported in Saudi newspapers such as the "Saudi Gazette" and "Al-Iqtisaddiyya". The result was a very rare public criticism of the group. [Abou el Fadl, Khaled, "The Great Theft", (2005), p.250-2 ]

Also criticized was the General Presidency for Girls' Education (GPGE), "an autonomous government agency long controlled by conservative clerics", that administers girls schools in Saudi Arabia.

An inquiry into the causes of the fire resulted in the sacking of Muslim cleric Ali bin Murshid el-Murshid, the official in charge of Saudi girls' schools. However the inquiry "absolved" the CPVPV "of blame for making the death toll worse," and dismissed as 'untrue' the reports that religious police had prevented girls not wearing headscarves from fleeing the school. According to Interior Minister Prince Nayef, two members of the police force had gone to the scene of the fire to prevent "mistreatment" of the girls. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1893349.stm BBC News. 25 March, 2002, Cleric sacked over Saudi school fire] ]

ee also

*Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
*Wahhabism
*Islam in Saudi Arabia

References

External links

* [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/03/15/saudia3801.htm Human Rights Watch. Saudi Arabia: Religious Police Role in School Fire Criticized]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1874471.stm BBC News. 15 March, 2002, Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1893349.stm BBC News. 25 March, 2002, Cleric sacked over Saudi school fire]