The Saudi Way

Guest · #1

Dawn March 18 2002The Saudi way By Khalid HasanSome years ago, a Pakistani doctor told me a story form his days in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he was working in one of the state-run hospitals. One day, he stepped out of his apartment, wearing jeans and sneakers, walked across the road to buy a pack of cigarettes (yes, he was one of those doctors who smoke, so there is hope for the rest of Fraulein Nicotine's suitors yet). He never got to the store because he was accosted by a plainclothesman who wanted to see his papers. All foreigners residing in the Kingdom need to carry their identification or work permit or whatever on their person all the time. He said he did not have any on him, but he only lived across the road and it would take him five minutes to come back with his papers. Wrong number. He was carted off to police lockup, kept there for several days and allowed neither to phone his wife nor his employers. Once freed, he resigned and left to find himself some easier place to live. A taxi driver, with whom I was having a nice chat in Karachi once, while his rickety contraption that only needed two things, an engine and a body, bounced along Nazimabad's back roads, said to me, "I will go without a fare for hours but I won't offer a ride to an Arab, even if he was a prince." When I said that did not sound a nice or reasonable thing to do, he turned around - without slowing down of course - and asked, "Where do you work?" I told him I worked in Europe. "Well, if like me you had worked in one of those countries, you would have understood what I meant." He then told me of the humiliation he, an honest, upright, hard-working and devout Muslim had suffered in more than one of the Gulf states. "I do not make much here," he added, "but nobody looks down on me. Nobody calls me a 'miskeen'. I walk as tall as the next man." He also told me that the worst thing that you could do there was to get into an accident because no matter whose fault it was, it would be the foreigner who would be blamed, unless he was a 'gora sahib'. Every other week, buried somewhere in the middle of column six or seven on an inside page of most of our newspapers is a brief news report that informs those who would notice it that three or four or more of their countrymen have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia. No one misses any sleep over it, nor do I recall ever having seen an editorial comment deploring the savagery of the punishment. Add this to what is already a long list of Pakistani dichotomy and double standards. The recently released report on human rights by the US State Department contains a 36-page section on the Kingdom that I would not advise anyone to read before lunch unless wishes no lunch that day. The 'Mubahith' or internal security force and the 'Mutawwa'in' or the religious police representing the Committee to Prevent Vice and Promote Virtue (now you know where the Taliban got theirs) are a law unto themselves. Although the Shar'ia strictly prohibits any judge from accepting a confession obtained under duress, the Interior ministry officials are said to be responsible for most incidents of abuse of prisoners, including beatings, whippings, sleep deprivation and even drugging. It is not uncommon to suspend prisoners from bars by their handcuffs or obtain confessions through torture and abuse. The Saudi government refuses to recognize the mandate of the UN Committee Against Torture. The much-feared religious police are known for intimidating, harassing, abusing and detaining citizens and foreigners, both men and women. The punishments meted out to wrongdoers include stoning, decapitation and death by firing squad. Repeated thievery can be, and often is, punished with the amputation of the right hand and the left foot. Flogging of those convicted of a political or religious crime is with a leather strap; but those caught drinking get off lightly, in comparison, as they are not flogged but caned. While the Saudi law prohibits arbitrary arrest, the religious police are generally free to intimidate and bring to police stations persons whom they accuse of committing "crimes of vice", a charge framed entirely in accordance with the judgement of the security agent. Musarrat Nazir, who till last reports came was still looking under the trees for that famous nose ornament of hers, once told me that on a visit to the Kingdom, as she arrived with her ten-year old son, tired and jetlagged, at the Riyadh airport, and as they waited their turn at the immigration and passport control window, the boy being exhausted put her head on her shoulder. Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Two or three Mutawwa'in rushed upon her screaming, pulled the terrified boy away from her and made it clear by gestures that they had to stand apart. No physical contact in public between sexes should occur, even between mother and son. She said it was a terrifying and humiliating experience. A friend once said if you go to the Kingdom, be sure that your faith is strong because it will be tested on more than one occasion. I hope Nawaz Sharif, currently a guest of the Kingdom, remembers to criticise only his own government because were he to criticise the Saudi government, that being an offence, he could be picked up by the 'Mubahith', the ministry of interior's internal security service which keeps those it picks up incommunicado in special prisons while investigations continue. The authorities also open mail and use informants and wiretaps. Security forces have been known to use wiretaps against foreigners suspected of alcohol-related offences. Informants and ward bosses report "seditious ideas" or anti- government activity in their neighbourhoods to the ministry of the interior. Women have a rough deal. They may not marry non-citizens without government permission (even men need permission if the intended is outside the six Gulf states). Women cannot marry non-Muslims, while men can choose a Jew or a Christian. Although the Shar'ia prohibits violence against women, it is said to be common. Hospitals admit women who have apparently been beaten up at home. They have since been instructed to report any suspicious case to the authorities. A woman may not travel abroad without the permission of her husband or parent. There are thousands of foreign women domestics in Saudi homes. Some countries maintain "safehouses" for those who have been mistreated so that they can find shelter. There are no active women's rights groups. Women are not allowed to drive and they must occupy the back seat. They can enter city buses but through rear entrances. A woman found in a car not being driven by a relative can be arrested. Women can now obtain identity cards but only with the permission of a male relative. In public, women must wear an 'abaya', a head to toe black garment. The head and hair must also remain covered. Women have to show legally specified grounds for divorce, but men are under no such obligation. Women make up 58 per cent of university students but are excluded from the study of such subjects as engineering, journalism and architecture. A woman can only go abroad to study if she is accompanied by her husband or a close male relative. After September 11 and given the nationality of the majority of the hijackers, pressure on Saudi Arabia has mounted to open up and introduce reform. How long it takes and what its political implications will be on the House of Saud is one of the great unanswered questions of our times.

Guest · #2

I recommend everyone to take time to read this.Say - anajmi, anyone ever call you a "mishkin" in your beloved Saudi Arabia?In all "REBUTTALS" of each & every human rights reports the Saudi Govt dismisses it, to borrow KOTHAR QIYAM'S word or," no-one can change the laws of Allah."Well, only recently or in 1962 the Saudis abolished the Sharia'h on SLAVEREY and not too distant in the future they will be forced to move on other laws that abuse human dignity & rights.

Guest · #3

Hafeez,You are such a pathetic soul that you deserve no comment. Saudi Arabia needs to be the beloved of every Muslim. The prophet (pbuh) was born there, he preached there and he died there. Infact Hazrat Ali (your reincarnation of Allah) was born and martyred over there.And you are obviously not talking about the Saudis, are you?

Guest · #4

ANAJMI, so, did you get called a "MISKIN" by your beloved Saudis? Can I assume that the same people have brainwashed you people that all arabs must be respected because the prophet was arab and language of allah is ababic and so on...NOTE: Its the same Vice Police who prevented girls from escaping a burning building because they were not islamically 'attired' and there is this ISSUE of 'NON-MERHAM' males( firefighters & police)coming into contact with the females. The Vice Police did what they did because according to them that is the EDICT of Islam and so is everything else discussed here in this report and according to them & Kothar BOHRAS: " No One can change them - ever".

Guest · #5

No I did not, but I guess you did, and I guess, rightly so.

Guest · #6

I believe everyone should read a book called "The House of Saud". I promise you that it would be an eye opening experience.

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