RIYADH — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice yesterday defended its action against the Jeddah-based businesswoman Yara earlier this month, saying she violated Saudi regulations and Islamic law.

“The Ministry of Labor does not approve mixing of men and women at work places. So it’s both a violation of the country’s law and the Shariah,” the commission said in a statement carried by Sabq.org Internet portal.

In its first reaction to the arrest of Yara, a mother of three, in Riyadh on Feb. 4 by its officials, the commission also said that it reserved the right to take legal action against columnist Abdullah Al-Alami for accusing its officials of abducting the woman.

Yara was arrested, along with a Syrian colleague, for being together in a Starbucks cafe in Riyadh. The 36-year-old woman said she was forced to fingerprint two confessions and was strip-searched at Riyadh’s Malaz Prison.

The commission also underscored the definition of family sections.

“The family sections at coffee shops and restaurants are meant for families and close relatives,” the statement said.

The commission also accused columnists Al-Alami of Al-Watan and Abdullah Abou Alsamh of Okaz of supporting illegal and anti-Islamic activities. Both Al-Alami and Abou Alsamh had in their columns questioned the way Yara was treated.

There was public outcry in the Kingdom and around the globe at the highhandedness of the commission members, who took Yara for detention and did not allow her to contact her husband by phone. Following the incident, messages of support and sympathies had poured in for Yara from all over the world.

Arab News tried to contact officials of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) to get its reaction to the commission’s statement, but Bandar Al-Hajjar, president of the organization and his deputy Mufleh Al-Qahtani were not responding.

In a previous statement, Al-Qahtani said his organization would take up the issue and demand clarification from the commission on various human rights violations.

The NSHR wants to know why the commission member had no police escort at the time of Yara’s arrest; why the commission member had no identity badge; how the commission member compelled the woman into a taxi; why Yara was forced to fingerprint the confession under threat; and why the commission did not — in accordance with an Interior Ministry notification issued last year — turn the suspect over to proper police officers.