A total of 165 Saudi and foreign women were convicted for drug-related offenses last year, according to sources quoted by local media.

Saudi women make up five percent of the country’s prison population, and were convicted for various “soft offenses” including theft, inflicting harm, unlawful isolation with men, disobeying parents, undergoing DNA tests to check the paternity of their babies, threatening others, malicious lawsuits and promoting the use of drugs and alcohol, the source said.

There are 800 female prisoners, which includes 200 Saudis, in Briman Prison in Jeddah. The cases, which included men defendants, were prosecuted in 13 courts across the country including Riyadh, Makkah, Jeddah, Dammam, Taif and Madinah.

There were 134 cases of defamation in six cities, 374 of theft, and 1,655 of inflicting harm.

Women were convicted in 162 cases involving malicious litigation, 590 for unlawful mixing, 41 for paternity testing, and 165 for promoting drugs and alcohol.

Midwah Al-Midwah, director general for social affairs in Najran, and former director of the rehabilitation center in prisons, said women commit the same crimes as men, with most cases involving unlawful mixing.

He said women’s offenses are known in criminology as soft crimes because they do not resort to violence.

“We rarely find women prisoners accused of armed robbery,” he said.

Saud Al-Dhyan, professor of social services at King Saud University, said many drug dealers use women to promote the use of drugs because police officers do not suspect them of being involved in criminal activity.

He said women choose cafes to promote drugs, and 60 percent of men and women start using narcotics out of curiosity.