Mutawaeen

The mutawaeen ( _ar. مطوعين) (also transliterated as mutawwaeen) are the members of Saudi Arabia's "Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice", a religious police force whose purpose is to ensure strict adherence to established codes of conduct based on Saudi Arabia's conservative form of Islam, Wahhabism, especially among the youth. They are known for wearing henna-dyed beards and loose-fitting red headscarves and are armed with thin wooden canes.

The force is separate from ordinary police, and answerable only to the King of Saudi Arabia. While on patrol, their duties include, but are not restricted to:

* ensuring that drugs and alcohol are not being traded.
* checking that women wear the abaya, a traditional all-enveloping black cloak.
* making sure that men and women who are spotted together in public are related.
* ensuring women do not smoke in public.
* formerly, enforcing the ban on camera phones. This ban was enacted out of a fear that men would use them to secretly photograph women and publish them on the Internet without the consent of the subjects. Camera phones are allowed now, however.
* preventing the population from engaging in "frivolous" Western customs such as Valentine's Day.

The punishment for such offenses are severe, often involving beatings and humiliation, and foreigners are not excluded from arrest. The mutawaeen encourage people to inform on others they know who are suspected of acting unvirtuously, and to punish such activities.

Recent Controversy

The role of the mutawaeen has come under scrutiny in Saudi Arabia recently. Many organizations in the West have accused it of promoting Islamic radicalism and fear that it will turn more people on the same path as Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. The accusations have been taken more seriously since suspected al-Qaeda militants performed suicide attacks on expatriate housing compounds in Riyadh on May 12, 2003. These bombings were the first indiscriminate attack against civilians in the Saudi Arabia, and some believe that the mutawaeen may be at the centre of this issue.

In 2002 several Saudi newspapers criticized the mutawaeen when they prevented men from rescuing girls in a burning school because they were not relatives. As a result, fourteen girls died and dozens were injured. In May 2003, al-Watan, a Saudi reform newspaper published several reports of people being mistreated by the police force, including the story of one woman from a remote southern town who had been beaten and held in solitary confinement for riding alone in the back of a taxi.

External links

* [http://www.hesbah.com/ Official Homepage of The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice]
* [http://www.notanymore.net/index_detail.php?id=695 Trouble in the desert kingdom] , Simon Reeve, The Independent July 15, 2004.
* [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/06/2003/10/2003054700 Morality police come under scrutiny] John R. Bradley, Reuters, Jun 10, 2003 ( [http://www.delphi.co.uk/cgi-bin/news/newswire.cgi/news/reuters/2003/06/09/world/saudirsquosmoralitypoliceinfiringline.html&template=/news/templates/newswire/news_story_reuters.html Also available here] ).
* [http://www.theregister.com/2004/11/10/saudi_camera_phone_ban/ Saudi ministers urge removal of camera phone ban] , Robin Lettice, The Register, November 10, 2004
* [http://members.fortunecity.com/saudhouse/article42.html New business, marriage brokerage] on Saudhouse.