MAKKAH, 17 March 2008 — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice denied yesterday the charges made in a local newspaper that its members had exceeded the limits in their treatment of a woman student and humiliated her in public.
Speaking to Arab News, Ahmad Qasim Al-Ghamdi, director of the commission’s branch in Makkah, said that the commission’s act merely protected the honor of the student and her family. He dismissed the charges in the media as “contrary to facts.”
The Makkah-based Arabic daily, An-Nadwa, reported yesterday that the commission publicly humiliated a young woman while she was waiting in her car outside a school in the Al-Zahir district in order to pick up her brother’s children several days ago.
Her family driver was in the car. The commission members arrested the driver, accusing him of having committed disgraceful acts with the woman. They ordered her to get out of the car and attempted to forcibly take her purse and mobile phone in front of bystanders, the newspaper reported.
Giving the commission’s version of the story, Al-Ghamdi said, “What really happened was that the commission members found an Indian driver committing a disgraceful act with the young woman. They stopped him and he confessed to the sins he was committing. The members took him away and allowed the woman to leave the place without doing anything to jeopardize her dignity. However, they took her identity card and called her brother to inform him of the developments. He asked them to punish the driver and promised to send someone to collect the car and his sister’s identity card. In fact, the role of the commission ended with the handing of the driver to police. But, shortly afterward, the commission was surprised by a man, who claimed to be the student’s brother-in-law, threatening to take action against the commission members.”
Al-Ghamdi said that the claim by the local newspaper that he had refused to speak about the incident was untrue. He pointed out that the newspaper not only carried his comments but also substituted its word for his and thus insinuated that the commission was not sure of its own conduct. “Instead of the word ‘disgraceful’ in my statement when I described the driver’s conduct, the newspaper said ‘suspicious conduct’.”
Al-Ghamdi said that the newspaper headline suggested that the driver’s confessions were questionable. “At the same time, it is a matter to be determined by police investigations and has nothing to do with the commission,” he said. He added that the details of the driver’s confessions were not released in order that they would not harm the reputation of the woman and her family.
The official emphasized that the commission had not dictated a confession to the driver as was suggested in the newspaper report.
“There is no basis for the charge that the commission members smeared her reputation by acting in public. On the other hand, the false charge (against the commission members) aims at spoiling the good name of the commission. The young woman was allowed to go home without any action taken against her and without having her identity exposed,” Al-Ghamdi said.
The commission chief wondered how the young woman’s relatives could claim that the commission’s “excesses” had humiliated the whole family as highlighted by the the newspaper report. “How can they say that the commission members exceeded the limits when they only detained the driver who was behaving in a disgraceful manner? The commission’s act was only to protect the honor of the young woman and her family from the driver who worked for them,” he said.
