JEDDAH, 16 November 2006 — The number of young women committing crimes or running away from their families is on the rise and the current facilities for holding them are insufficient, according to a social service official.
“The problem is prevalent in society but nobody is admitting it,” an official at the Welfare Institute for Girls in Makkah told Arab News on condition of anonymity. “I doubt many people even know there are institutes for caring for female juvenile delinquents; we’re not supposed to talk to the media.”
Indeed, when Arab News tried to investigate the issue last year after hearing from a security source about the growing number of runaway girls in Jeddah, officials at the institute refused to talk about it. Nora Al-Alsheikh, director of the women’s department at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Jeddah, denied at the time that there were runaway girls and said they were cases of “absent-from-home” troubled girls who need guidance.
“We get all kinds of cases at our welfare center, from murder to drugs to moral cases — everything you can think of,” said the official at the Makkah girls’ welfare center. “Most of the cases though are of runaway or ‘absent’ girls arrested by the virtue commission or the police. It is a big problem but no one wants to admit it so that we can raise awareness and address it.”
The issue caught the attention of the Shoura Council, the Kingdom’s appointed consultative body, which last month raised the issue of how to arrest and investigate minors, especially in areas far from juvenile delinquent centers for boys and welfare institutes for girls. The council urged security officials to abide by regulations already on the books related to dealing with minors and young adult women.
The Shoura’s Family and Social Affairs Committee underscored the special booking and investigation procedures that exist for boys between the ages of 12 and 18 and women under the age of 30.
According to these regulations, the director of the arresting agency or his deputy should carry out the processing of the minor or young woman in the presence of her guardian or a representative from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. In most cases, statements taken by the arresting agency must be done in the presence of the legal guardian. In the event the arresting agency determines that it’s best not to have a legal guardian present, a social worker must be present during the questioning.
The source at the Makkah girls’ center said the procedures specifically prohibit minors from being held at the facility of the arresting agency for more than 24 hours. Minors are supposed to be returned to their guardians or transferred to a juvenile center (for boys) or a welfare institute (for girls and young women).
“Anything else is a violation of the regulations,” said the source.
A minor is transferred immediately to a delinquency center or welfare institute for major crimes, such as murder, rape, abduction, drugs and alcohol violations, burglary by breaking and entry and the use of weapon, forming a gang, firing a weapon or impersonating a security official.
Girls are supposed to be escorted by a virtue commission member, legal guardians or female guards when they are transferred to the closest welfare institute.
While there are juvenile centers for boys in almost every city, there are only four welfare institutes for girls in the whole country — in Makkah, Riyadh, Abha and Ahsa.
“This is a problem for girls and their families living in cities or villages other than these four locations,” said the official at the Makkah girls’ welfare center. “We get a lot of cases of girls who only need to stay for a short period — sometimes only a day or a week before they are released.”
She added that the peak times for transfers of girls and young women to the Makkah welfare center is during the summer vacation break and the peak Umrah season.
