The British magazine The News Statesman has this article on how Saudis are getting fed up with the excesses of the religious police. More than just muttering behind closed doors, though, they are speaking out in public, demanding reform, and most surprisingly, getting it.

Policing religion
Dana Moss and Zvika Krieger

There are signs that Saudi society may finally have had enough of the country’s draconian religious police.

Saudi Arabia’s draconian religious police, part of the country’s previously untouchable religious elite, have come under an unprecedented barrage of criticism in recent months. Known as the mutawwa’in, these foot soldiers of the Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are tasked with meting out punishment to those they believe transgress their strict interpretation of Islam. Their broad purview, ranging from ensuring modest dress to preventing the illicit mingling of men and women, has made them a much-feared fixture of the kingdom. It should come as no surprise that this group provided inspiration for the Taliban.

But a series of recent reports exposing mutawwa’in abuse is slowly beginning to erode the committee’s edifice of impervious power. One victim, Ahmed al-Bulawi, was arrested and killed by committee members for “illegal seclusion” with a woman in his car; it transpired that he was working as the woman’s driver. Another victim, Salman al-Huraisi, died after the mutawwa’in brutally beat him while detaining him on suspicion of possessing alcohol.

The public outcry has encouraged others to come forward and protest abuse by the committee. The most prominent case has been that of a 50-year-old Riyadh woman who was kidnapped, along with her daughter, by two committee members who then crashed her car. As a result, three lawsuits have been lodged against the committee, which has never been legally challenged before.
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