Saudi justice

On 7 February I blogged about Yara, the "37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three (who) is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh"

I now read in the Arab News that "The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice yesterday defended its action against the Jeddah-based businesswoman Yara earlier this month, saying she violated Saudi regulations and Islamic law.

“The Ministry of Labor does not approve mixing of men and women at work places. So it’s both a violation of the country’s law and the Shariah,” the commission said in a statement carried by Sabq.org Internet portal...

The commission also accused columnists Al-Alami of Al-Watan and Abdullah Abou Alsamh of Okaz of supporting illegal and anti-Islamic activities. Both Al-Alami and Abou Alsamh had in their columns questioned the way Yara was treated.

There was public outcry in the Kingdom and around the globe at the highhandedness of the commission members, who took Yara for detention and did not allow her to contact her husband by phone. Following the incident, messages of support and sympathies had poured in for Yara from all over the world.

Arab News tried to contact officials of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) to get its reaction to the commission’s statement, but Bandar Al-Hajjar, president of the organization and his deputy Mufleh Al-Qahtani were not responding."


Our friends the Saudis...