OK, what are we to make of this?

Last month, Saudi Arabia executed a 60-year-old woman for practicing witchcraft, black magic. This month, a man is found guilty of practicing black magic. He gets to keep his head, though, and is instead sentenced to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes. Other than the sex of the offender, what’s the difference?

There might be a difference that matters, but I don’t know what it is. The woman was a Saudi; the man, an ‘African’. Is the different treatment intended as an object lesson to Saudis? Was there a significant difference in the amount of money involved? This Arab News piece clearly identifies the man as a ‘con artist’, noting that his con was black magic. Reports on the woman’s case identified her as a ‘witch’, noting that she conning the innocent. Is it simply a matter of which crime gets the headline?

Con artist gets 1,500 lashes, 15 years in prison
ARAB NEWS

JEDDAH: The Riyadh General Court has handed 15 years and 1500 lashes to an African con man who practiced black magic, local daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported Thursday.

On receiving complaints from some victims, detectives started investigations and discovered the sorcerer’s hide out. They arrested the sorcerer red-handed after a sting operation. Police also seized magical potions, amulets, special herbs and other tools of sorcery from him.

Black magicians thrive on problems related to disagreement between husband and wife. Some of them claim that they can make a woman love or hate a particular man or vice versa. They also claim that they have the power to make people win in business, court cases or in other situations. Some of them also claim that they have genii under their control.

Saudi media are looking at the appointment of Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Sheikh as the new head of Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and is finding a lot to like. Asharq Alawsat‘s profile, [See link] notes him as more liberal than many on women’s issues, including employment, but also stretching to the hijab and child marriage. He has spoken openly and since his appointment about employment issues; we’ll have to see how he acts on the others.

Saudi Gazette reports that he’s already instituted a change in the way the Commission will react to reports of misbehavior: It will ignore anonymous complaints.

Hai’a won’t respond to unverified complaints

RIYADH – The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a) will not respond to reports unless the person making the complaint identifies himself or herself and the information is verified, said Sheikh Dr. Abdullatif Bin Abdulaziz Aal Al-Sheikh, General President of the Hai’a.

He also said that the Hai’a will only deal with reports that fall under its jurisdiction.

Hoaxes and false reports were the main cause for criticism of the performance of the Hai’a staff, Aal Al-Sheikh said in a statement.

He said the Hai’a was striving to change its image, adding that he sought the cooperation of all Hai’a staff in achieving this objective.
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Back to Asharq Alawsat, where Hussein Shabokshi see Al-Sheikh as a breath of fresh air inspiring the Commission, an organization that the majority of Saudis believe necessary to their society. He compliments him for taking action in barring volunteer mutawwa as a critical step in fixing the organization’s image and function. He notes, too, that the Sheikh is aptly named, too. Abdullatif means ‘Servant of the Kindly’ [God] while his surname indicates his descent from Muhammad ibn ?Abd al-Wahhab, eponymous founder of the conservative trend of Islam followed by the Saudi majority.

Shabokshi writes that as Saudi Arabia finds its way through a period of major reforms, in society as well as law, it’s critical to have leaders capable of dealing with change. He squarely puts Al-Sheikh in this column.

A new chapter in the history of the Hesba
Hussein Shabokshi

Talking or writing about the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice [CPVPV] in Saudi Arabia is an extremely complex and thorny issue due to the common understanding that criticizing – or even expressing an opinion about – this organization represents an objection to religion itself. Hence, whoever ventures to discuss this matter is exposed to a volley of accusations, as is often the case. The CPVPV, or the “Hesba” as it more commonly known, is an organization that is unique to Saudi Arabia. With a few exceptions, no other country in the world has a similar institution or organization. This organization was established shortly after the unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and soon became part of the state’s administrative tools regulating public affairs.

The CPVPV has undergone various phases of development and expansion to its mandate. Saudi society has changed over the years, witnessing a sharp increase in its population, as well as different lifestyles appearing on the scene. In addition to this, the youth have begun to interact with public life; women have become more open to the idea of employment, whilst there has also been a sharp increase in the proportion of foreign labour. Accordingly, demands were made for these new developments to be taken into account, and for a change in how the CPVPV dealt with such issues. The CPVPV was previously a sitting duck for anyone wanting to criticize Saudi Arabia. Violations committed by certain members of the CPVPV would be viewed as part of a general flaw in Saudi society, whilst the most common description of the CPVPV in the western media is “religious police”, with all the unacceptable scornful connotations attached to this.
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[NOTE: Just for the sake of clarity: The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has several names used in common speech. The more common ones include: The Commission, Haya or Ha’ia, mutawwa/mutawwaeen or mutawwa’in, and religious police. Disfavored by the organization, but widely heard nonetheless, is ‘vice cops’. In his article, Shabokshi uses a term, Hesba, which I’d not previously encountered. Its meaning is clear enough, though. It’s an alternate spelling of hisba, the principle of ‘enjoining virtue and forbidding what is wrong’ through which the Commission draws its raison d’être.

A piece in Arab News points to an interesting sociological phenomenon in Saudi Arabia, though I’m sure it’s not exclusive to the country…

While there’s minimal opposition to a father remarrying after a divorce, children really dislike it when their mother’s remarry, even after the death of her husband. I’m not sure that fathers’ remarriages are pain free, but Mom? That’s apocalyptic, it’s embarrassing, it’s OMG, FML!

So, loving children that they are, they’d rather have their mothers leading a lonely, celibate life than taking a chance at finding happiness. The children – at least some of the ones interviewed for this article – accuse Mom of being selfish, not thinking of the children and their reputations. Really? I’m pretty sure there are mirrors in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps this children should try looking in one.

I suspect that real issue is that they just don’t want to even think about their mother’s having sex. Marriage, after all, is the license to have sex in Saudi Arabia. And while these kids stand as living proof that their mothers are not virgins, they just can’t quite wrap their heads around that fact.

It’s yet another example of how Saudi women get the short end of the stick. This time again, it’s not law, but society that oppresses.

Why second marriage of mother is a taboo?
ARAB NEWS

ALKHOBAR: Saudis don’t usually like it when their mother gets remarried. But when it comes to their father, no one has a problem.

According to a report in Al-Riyadh Arabic daily, the sentiments that children have toward their mother and father are not the same. They might not mind if their father marries another woman but will fight tooth and nail if the mother tries to remarry.

To think of losing their mother’s affection to another man is impossible for them. It might be argued that they are too selfish to give their mother another chance at life. After spending her whole life serving them devotedly, they would prefer her to lead a lonely life.

Umm Muhammad a 52-year-old divorcee, shared her experience with the newspaper. She had received a proposal from a man who promised her a happy married life. He was also willing to support her children from the first marriage. Living alone in a house given by her previous husband, with no one to take care of her except a housemaid, she thought it would bring an end to her solitary life.

All five of her children were married and lived in separate houses. When they heard about the proposal, they got really upset. Muhammad, the eldest son, threatened to kill the man while her other son reminded her that she is now a grandmother. Her daughters were worried what their husbands and their families would think.
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The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have a new chief, Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh. Al-Asheikh has a Doctoraate in Islamic Science (i.e., Shariah Law) and has worked “as a director general of investigations at the General Presidency, second assistant secretary-general at the Council of Senior Religious Scholars and special adviser at the Riyadh governorate.” He calls himself an administrator and wants people to judge his job performance through the actions of the Haya and not just his words.

Both Arab News and Saudi Gazette scored interviews with him following his appointment last Friday. In both interviews, he stresses that his officials cannot be committing wrongs while trying to encourage the good, their role under the concept of hisba, that is, encouraging virtue while combating vice. He says his officials will be trained, but also held accountable for their own misdeeds. He emphasizes to his officers that dignity, of both the officers and the recipients of their attention must have their dignity preserved.

Al-Asheikh is known as a moderate and supporter of women’s place in the national economy. He points to history and the Quran for proof that women’s daily interaction with men in the marketplace has long been approved. He is not a ‘liberal’, however, as he still has strong beliefs about the proper ‘place’ of women in society and the extent to which ‘mingling’ of the sexes is permitted.

Saudi Gazette/Okaz:

‘Hai’a will prevent vice without vice’

Arab News:

New chief hints at Haia reform,
says mistakes will not go unpunished

Tariq Al-Maeena tells a remarkable story in his column in today’s Arab News. The story is about how a Saudi woman, the object of domestic abuse by her husband while he was studying in the US, found greater justice in secular America than she did through her Saudi family and compatriots. What is even more eye-popping, is that a senior Saudi cleric, Ayed Al-Qarni, noticed and stated that he wished Saudi society could follow the practice of Islam as well as America!

To be honest, the way the woman and her family were treated by social services and the police in Ohio is remarkable in its own right. Most victims of domestic abuse do not meet quite the generosity she appears to have received. Still, it is what it is.

‘I wish I was American’
TARIQ AL-MAEENA

The plight of abused women in this country is swept under carpet

Not so long ago, hard-liner turned-reformed cleric Ayed Al-Garni wrote a piece entitled, “I wish I was American” on the plight of a married Saudi woman caught in an abusive marriage and far away from home.

The story revolves around a Saudi student who went to the United States to work on his MBA. He was accompanied by his wife and two children, a daughter aged 8 and a son who was 6 years old. The family initially settled in Richmond, Virginia not far from where the husband had to pursue his studies.

It was not long after that the husband’s abusive nature toward his wife began to display itself, first with words and then physical assault that on more than one occasion caused bodily harm. The wife’s cry for help during such times would invariably draw the attention of their neighbors, married Saudi couples themselves, who would try to intervene and play the peacemakers, demanding that the husband refrain from such violence toward his wife. They even contacted the wife’s parents in Saudi Arabia to put some pressure on the husband to ease his aggression.
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It’s indisputable that Saudi Arabia’s universities are turning (churning?) out graduates with absolutely no employable skills. Saudi Gazette/Okaz report that the Deputy Minister of Labor identifies the problem: too many students in areas that are only minimally necessary in contemporary society, specifically, Shariah Law studies and Arabic Language. As Saudis have pointed out to me, they do not need Islamic plumbers or dentists, just plumbers and dentists who can do the job.

The perils of focus on Shariah and Arabic are several. First, graduates unable to find jobs for which they are qualified get angry. They’ve wasted time, and sometimes money, earning something that is little valued. Next is the problem that these unemployable graduates create for both the national economy and society. They end up being a drain on both government and parental coffers because they are unable to produce anything worthwhile.

Perhaps the most insidious problem, though, is that having been educated in a narrow field, these graduates have a tendency to view the world through the lenses crafted by that field of study. There’s an adage that goes, ‘Everything looks like a nail to a hammer.’ It applies here as well: viewing the world solely through the eyes of Shariah law or historic Arab culture (the goal of Arabic language studies as taught) necessarily misses out on the broader aspects of life. Diversity of thought or behavior is certainly not promoted or valued; in fact, they are seen as dangers, capable of disrupting the ideals of a ‘golden age’ that never was. Further, given the way critical analysis has been deprecated in Saudi education, we end up with a situation wherein precious nuggets of false history are protected like a jinn’s treasure. And thus, the machine to produce better educated religious police gets fed. They’re ‘better educated’ in that they now hold degrees, but they are worse educated in that they know less of the world, of mankind, than almost any other field of study would produce. The only jobs they are competent to fill are those artificially created by government in the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

I think it clear that these jobs are not productive. They may have social value – Saudi society continues to feel a need for them – but they add nothing to the national economy. To the contrary, they interfere with efficient operations by mandating ‘separate but equal (and twice as expensive)’ sexual segregation in the workplace. They inhibit women’s ability to drive, thus creating an artificial need for foreign drivers and another drain on the economy.

I am not calling for a major change that puts students into the hard sciences. There, too, one finds limited opportunities for jobs, though perhaps not as serious a bottleneck. Instead, I think, Saudi education should start incorporating more comparative studies within the liberal arts. These courses should demonstrate that there are manifold ways of doing things successfully; that every decision has benefits and costs; that history can have direct application on contemporary matters.

Saudi parents as well as the jobless graduates know there’s a problem. They’ve been calling for reform but have been thwarted by religious and social conservatives who fear change. ‘Modernization without change’, the mantra of the conservatives, is impossible. It is far better to accept that change is inevitable and seek to moderate its hazardous or ambiguous consequences.

‘Too many Arabic and Shariah graduates’
Naim Tameem Al-Hakim | Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — There are too many Arabic and Shariah graduates in the market currently, according to Dr. Mefrij Al-Haqbani, Deputy Minister of Labor.

Al-Haqbani said these graduates rarely get the jobs they were trained for, and often have to settle for jobs paying as little as SR2,000 a month.

However, there are plans to upgrade the training and courses of colleges offering these diplomas and degrees. This is being carried out by various government agencies, including the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) at the Ministry of Higher Education.

Some graduates are bitter about not being able to find jobs. Muhammad Al-Qerrni said he graduated from a faculty of Arabic language two years ago, but has not found a job to suit his qualification. He eventually accepted a job for SR2,000.
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Arab News headlines that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice will be getting new funds from the 2012 budget in order to ‘increase its awareness’ of alcohol and ‘black magic’. The decision to ban alcohol is one for the Saudis to make, and they have. That it goes against human nature seems immaterial. Lots of countries ban things for their own reasons. That the ban is not perfect – witness the necessity of alcohol recovery clinics in the country – doesn’t seem to matter either.

Shoura Council approves additional funds for Haia
MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: The Shoura Council approved supplementary funds for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) to boost its awareness programs against vices in the Kingdom.

The increase in funds was swiftly approved by the majority of Shoura members after the Committee on Islamic Affairs submitted its observations on the annual report presented by the Haia on Sunday. The session was chaired by Shoura Council President Abdullah Al-Asheikh.

Shoura Council Secretary-General Muhammad Al-Ghamdi said the council appreciated the services rendered by the Haia toward the prevention of vices. Endorsing its activities, the council recommended additional finances for its moral education programs, which include awareness programs against vices such as crimes, brewing and consumption of alcohol and the practice of black magic.

The secretary-general said it is expected that the Haia will coordinate with other relevant governmental agencies in the implementation of its awareness programs.
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What is really distressing in this piece, however, is buried in the last paragraph of the story…

… During a subsequent discussions, the members stressed the need for a comprehensive personal database of all individuals in the Kingdom. The members said that such a database should include national identity card, credit card and mobile phone numbers, addresses and personal data such as health insurance and the health status of the individual. The members said that including such details could prove useful for e-government activities and to promote electronic communication within the Kingdom.

I don’t think this a proper thing for a country to ask of its citizens. It’s what parents ask of their teenage children, to know where they are and what they’re up to. But much of Saudi society seems to rely on the infantilization of its members, particularly women, who are deemed utterly unable to behave virtuously if there are men around. Saudis are, in fact, deterred from exercising self-control by laws and regulations that seek to channel their behavior into very peculiar paths, paths that no other country or culture has found necessary to follow.

Saudi Arabia’s new regulations that require the sale of women’s undergarments to be done by female sales personnel only come into effect next week. Saudi Gazette reports that those shops violating the regulation will have their business licenses suspended. Other regulations concerning security measures, customers, and employee dress will be checked via inspection over the coming months, with July being the absolute deadline for compliance on all issues.

Lingerie shops have one week to hire women
Labor ministry warns offices to follow Nitaqat procedures

JEDDAH – Shops selling women’s lingerie have a week – until Jan. 4, 2012 – to hire female workers, said Dr. Fahd Al-Takhifi, Assistant Undersecretary for Development at the Ministry of Labor
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“The ministry will suspend services of violators,” said Al-Takhifi in a statement to Al-Watan Arabic daily on Thursday.

Al-Takhifi said the ministry will form an inspection committee to implement the decision and will send teams out on daily visits for a week.
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Saudi Gazette, running a story based on news agency reports, says that Saudi women will not need permission or consent of their male guardians in order to run for elective office or to vote in the 2015 municipal elections.

Given the power Saudi males use to control women through guardianship, this is a substantial move. It certainly reduces men’s authority and, as such, is likely to fuel heated debate. We’ll have to wait and see if this liberty is continued to be asserted as election time draws near.

Elections for women won’t need male nod

RIYADH — Women in Saudi Arabia will not need a male guardian’s approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time, a Saudi official has said.

The change signifies a step forward in easing laws for women. Shoura Council member Fahd Al-Azi was quoted in Al-Watan newspaper on Wednesday saying that approval for women to run and vote came from the King, and therefore women will not need a male guardian’s approval.

Hatoun Al-Fasi, a women’s history professor in Riyadh, said just the announcement that Saudi women can run for office and vote without permission will stir debate.
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Saudi Arabia has a distinct issue with men and women being in the same place. Popular thought seems to have it that if the two are in the same place, sex is going to happen. Torrid, illegal sex. And that simply cannot be allowed.

As a result, the country has devised various wide flung schemes to keep the two apart, from sex-segregated schools to separate sections of restaurants that keep men apart from women and families (which may include male members, of course). This separation extends to shopping malls, among the few public, social recreation venues the Kingdom affords its citizens. But, people being people, what is forbidden becomes attractive.

And so, young men, banned from malls, find ways to get into them. It’s a challenge that they’ve accepted, be it for the simple sake of doing what is barred to them or taking whatever scrap of a chance they can find to put themselves in the company of females. Arab News reports on the issue…

Young Saudis invent ploys to enter family-only malls
NADIA AL-FAWAZ | ARAB NEWS

ABHA: Entering malls and shopping centers have become a real challenge for young Saudi men, who have innovated many ways and means to force themselves inside.

Under the prevailing rules, only women and families are allowed to enter malls. The young men are barred from malls because of fears that they may disturb families. The young men have considered this a challenge that they have to defeat and deal with one way or another.

Many young men dress like women in order to be allowed into the malls. Others bribe the security guard who controls the gates, while a third group pays money to young girls who will give them company to gain access to malls.

Most of these adventures take place over the weekends. Many young men gather at the gates of malls and shopping centers with the hope of being allowed to go inside. “Preventing young men from entering malls represents a real challenge that we have to overcome,” said Saeed Al-Amri, a young Saudi.
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It’s sad, really, that millions upon millions of Riyals are spent in trying to maintain this separation. Schools, businesses, banks; restaurants, medical clinics, airport waiting areas… all are duplicated in the name of segregation. It would be far cheaper to teach men (and women, if necessary) that proximity does not equal promiscuity.

Are Saudi women gaming the Hafiz unemployment scheme? Arab News explores the issue today noting that unemployment is massive among Saudi women as they are only ‘permitted’ to work in education or medicine. That’s not categorically true as the byline of a female journalist demonstrates, but it is essentially true; women work only marginally in other fields. But many women seem to feel that the unemployment benefits are due them whether or not they’re actively seeking employment, the goal of the Hafiz program. They will be discovered when they reject job placement offers and, according to sources, should and will be punished.

It is remarkable that 80% of the beneficiaries of Hafiz are women. I think the number is probably justifiable given the rate of female unemployment, but the program’s workings are not transparent so it’s hard to tell. The program is not, however, simply a money transfer to Saudi citizens of either sex. It is a conditional benefit that is intended to cover gaps that occur while actively seeking employment.

Hafiz program: Women are major beneficiaries
DIANA AL-JASSEM | ARAB NEWS

JEDDAH: With the implementation of the first phase of the Hafiz unemployment program on Dec. 31, 700,000 Saudis will start receiving their monthly allowance.

Reports issued by the Ministry of Labor confirm that the list consists of 560,000 Saudi women against 140,000 Saudi men, a discrepancy that has sparked the debates on unemployment among Saudi women. Some Saudi men accuse women of registering in Hafiz without ever having looked for a job.

Arab News raised the question whether women registered in Hafiz are involuntarily unemployed or if they simply prefer not to work. Do women participate in Hafiz because they are in need of a job or did they find Hafiz a golden opportunity to earn money for doing nothing?

Aisah Natto, a Saudi businesswomen and board member of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), confirmed there were two important reasons for the large number of unemployed Saudi women benefitting from Hafiz.
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Saudi Gazette has two articles related to women’s employment. The first concerns an offer of 28,000 jobs in education. The article notes that the offer is conditional, with the condition being that the women be qualified in the academic subject area. That doesn’t seem terribly onerous, frankly.

The second says that women will now be allowed to study Industrial and Electrical Engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, beginning at the start of the next academic year. That’s good news, but will women be allowed to take up jobs in those fields? One can hope…

Arab News runs a nice op-ed today. In it, Eman Alnafjan argues that the whole issue of women’s driving has become tedious and petty. Thirty years of argumentation have simply driven the issue into the dirt. All the dead horses have been beaten into powder. It’s simply time to get over the objections that are not based on law, not based on religion, and move on to permitting women to drive in Saudi Arabia.

Women driving: Topic is getting tedious
EMAN ALNAFJAN

Supporters and opponents of the ban agree it is a petty issue

The ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is a topic that has become tedious due to the uncountable times it has been written about since the 1980s.

Saudi Arabia is infamous for its gender discrimination When it comes to who gets to sit in the driver’s seat. The only thing that rivals it in what the country is known for globally is our never-ending supply of oil. What is ironic is that on both sides, Saudis who oppose and those who are calling for lifting the ban, is that they are in agreement that the whole issue is petty.

Both sides, though, come to this same conclusion of pettiness from different perspectives. Those who are calling for the lift of the ban on women driving point out how the ban is basically put in place as an obstacle to women who otherwise would go out into the workplace and most probably compete with men. However, this obstacle consequently extends to obstructing ease of access to education, health care, work in completely gender-segregated environments and even the basic right to socialize or leave the house for a change of scenery.

Another reason that the ban is in place is the argument that a man in the driver’s seat is a deterrent to neighboring cars from flirting with the women passengers. This whole line of reasoning is easily shot down. First of all, who is to say that the employed driver himself won’t harass the women passengers? Secondly, I cannot count the times I’ve come across Saudi men who completely ignored the driver’s presence and dangerously harassed and chased cars that carry women passengers.
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