Members of the National Society for Human Rights are visiting Ibrahim Al-Gaith, president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (known as Haia) to check some disturbing complaints.
According to Ms. Suhaila Zein Alabedeen, the newly founded nongovernmental organization is checking stories of human rights abuses by zealot members of the commission.
Cases include beating, imprisonment and verbal abuse of innocent couples because of unfounded suspicions of improper relations. Others complain that the commission members hunt for such relations in family sections of public places. If single men are not allowed into these areas why make an exception in the case of these members — they ask. Many were taken from malls, restaurants and streets just because they couldn’t prove they were relatives.
A South African nurse was caught in a supermarket with her Lebanese boyfriend. Both were Christians shopping for Christmas. The “Haia” put them in its private prison for 14 days. Both were denied phone calls and access to their lawyers, embassies and companies. It took their relatives and friends a couple of weeks to find and bail them out.
A Filipino maid with her husband and infant were caught in another market on similar suspicion. Even though the husband proved their relations, his wife was kept in prison and he was let out with the infant. A prison officer insisted she should return to her sponsor not husband. She left her sponsor because he had not given her salary for six months. Apparently, this wasn’t enough reason to let her go, so the husband’s lawyer enlisted the help of the National Society for Human Rights and the media. Prince Salman, the governor of Riyadh, intervened and ordered her release.
A Saudi doctor and his sister were leaving the market with a couple of traveling bags when an angry Haia member approached them. He wanted to know why did the lady leave part of her hair, and the lower parts of her legs uncovered. (How could he tell? He must have been a keen observer!) Besides, the brother must prove that she was his sister. Both should go to the Haia offices for further investigation and proper Islamic teachings.
To make a long story short, the brother was strong enough to insist on taking his sister home first before going to their offices to go through an unforgettable confrontation. It would have been even worse if she wasn’t his sister or he wasn’t Saudi!
Engaged couples, colleagues, relatives and friends are caught everyday in very open, very public places on their own or in groups because the Haia regards this as “Khelwa”. Al-Khelwa in Islam means a man and a woman meeting alone where no one can see them. To be in a public place automatically means you are not in a secluded place, and therefore not in Khelwa. The problem is a matter of basic principles. Either you believe in human rights and dignity or you don’t. Either you presume the best in people or the worst. Either people are innocent until proven guilty or they are all guilty until they prove their innocence. Either all people are equal under the law, foreigners of all nationalities included, or they are not. Either you take Islam as it is, or you make your own version and enforce it on others.
Besides, how can one be the accuser, judge, juror, jailor and executioner at the same time? How could a Haia member make the accusation, take the accused to his private court, judge him without the presence of a lawyer and imprison him in a Haia jail? This is too much authority in one single hand. Justice cannot be served this way even if the Haia members are angels, and they are not.
In the reform mode we are in, it is about time we fixed this problem. I don’t advocate the scrapping of Haia. We do need them. They do a lot of good work in promoting Islamic values and preventing vice, as they are supposed to do. But these duties have to be regulated, and performed in a civilized manner. Human rights and due process have to be observed. Those who cross the line and abuse their authority must be disciplined. Punishment should fit the crime with no exceptions allowed.
