MAKKAH, 19 February 2007 — A pervert who posed as a fake herbal doctor to sexually abuse women and ask them to undress themselves was arrested by the Makkah branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and secret police on Saturday evening.
The 30-year-old Burmese known as Rasheed worked during the day in a store selling kitchen utensils in the Al-Shawam market of Makkah. According to commission members, Rasheed would tell female customers that he was a herbal doctor who could help women solve their problems by using his “magical powers” to create love between couples experiencing domestic problems.
A commission member said, “He would visit women at their home and ask them to undress themselves saying they needed to do so for him to be able to fully understand their problems. A number of women reported that Rasheed would feel them up inappropriately while asking them for their full names and the names of their husbands and family members so he could magically cure them.”
Rasheed would charge the women SR400 in advance and having abused the women would take the money and leave. “He was basically preying on vulnerable women. He wanted to see them naked and would take their money while he did. He was a complete charlatan,” said the commission member.
A woman who was asked to undress by Rasheed reported him to members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. “Commission members acted immediately and together with secret police devised a plan.
A woman officer in plain clothes called the man and asked for his services to solve problems she was having with her husband. She said she was desperately in need of a solution since her husband was contemplating divorce,” said a commission member.
Rasheed asked the police officer for her address and said he would visit her at home. The officer gave him an address in the Al-Otaibeya suburb of Makkah where secret police and commission members were lying in wait.
“When Rasheed came he asked for SR400 and then asked for the officer’s name and the names of her family members. He then asked her to undress so he could treat her. It was then that the commission members and the secret police moved in and arrested him,” said the commission source.
On his arrest Rasheed confessed to being a pervert. He also said that he is married and father of two children. He told Arab News that he was inspired to carry out this type of perverted work while listening to female customers complaining about their husbands at the store where he worked.
“I used to make a large amount of money from this. Initially I had no idea I could do this type of work. I knew it was wrong to do what I was doing. But I was blinded by the amount of money that I was making and this was driving me to continue,” he said.
Dr. Khaled Bajahraz, an Islamic studies teacher in Makkah, warned people to be aware of perverts and not be fooled by such fraudsters. “People should know that what they are doing is totally against Islamic principles and the honor of women. People need to be extra careful,” he said.
