The Saudis, including Saudi media, are always talking about abuses by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, with an occasional favorable piece tossed in every now and then to deflect accusations that they are ‘anti-Commission’. That appears to be the case with this piece from Saudi Gazette, reporting on how a branch of the Commission, after finding a couple in the state of khulwa (an unrelated man and woman being together in a secluded space), worked as match-makers instead of filing criminal charges.

That’s all well and good, of course. It’s a demonstration of a surprising light hand by the moral enforcers. But it also points out a very real problem with the Commission, one that challenges its very reason for being: Its actions are arbitrary and thus unpredictable. If one cannot know whether one is committing a crime or not, then life becomes very frangible, open to being punished (or not) at someone else’s whim.

As we’ve seen in many other cases, being in a state of khulwa can lead to prison and lashes—as well as very little sympathy from the judges if khulwa leads to other things, like gang rape. So what’s the factor that changes the attitude? Is it the ages of the participants in this case? The report does not mention age, but I suppose if both were no longer youths, the Commission might look upon their sin sympathetically—though with the proper remorse for the sinner, of course. Was one or the other participant related to someone of high rank or prestige? Did the just have winning smiles?

This is another area in which codification of Saudi law would serve to improve the lives of all. No one enjoys going through life on tenterhooks.

Man married by Hai’a speaks of fear, gratitude
Ahmad Al-Kinani

AL-IRDIYA AL-SHAMALIYA – Mohammed, the man who two days ago revealed how the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice made his dreams of marriage come true after he was discovered in a situation that would normally provoke their wrath, has spoken of his initial fear at being caught with the woman who is now his wife.

“When the Hai’a turned up and we were in a state of ‘khulwa’,” Mohammed said, referring to being alone with an unrelated member of the opposite sex, “I honestly thought that that was the end of everything.” “I thought that that would be the end of all contact between us, and that great disgrace would be brought on both our families.”

“I was terrified when the Hai’a chief then called her father and told him about my wish to marry his daughter,” Mohammed continued. “I was scared and, to say the least, surprised. And I couldn’t believe it when her father then starting praying to Allah to bless the Ha’ia after he found out my true intentions.”
…