Word: mutaween
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Fueled by the al-Huraisi case and other allegations of abuse, an unprecedented backlash is stirring against Saudi Arabia's feared religious police, or mutaween - Saudi slang meaning "pious ones." After years of acting as if it were above the law, the commission, which was established in 1926, now faces the prospect of having its considerable powers curbed. Prosecutors launched a high-profile investigation into al-Huraisi's death, and Saudi media reports say they are preparing to put one commission member on trial for his killing...
Meanwhile, another trial is already under way in the city of Tabuk, where the family of a man who died of an apparent heart attack in the commission's custody is likewise demanding a death sentence for four mutaween allegedly involved in his detention. Ahmed al-Bulawi died after being hauled into a local commission headquarters for being in a car with a woman who was not his close relative; the mutaween apparently acted too hastily, since it turned out that he was employed as the family's driver...
SAUDI ARABIA Improperly Dressed Interior Minister Prince Nayef defended Saudi religious police after press reports accused the mutaween of causing the deaths of 15 schoolgirls in a fire. The newspaper stories alleged that as the girls, aged between 13 and 17, tried to escape their burning school they were pushed back into the flames by police from the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice because they were not wearing their black robes and headscarves. Prince Nayef claimed the police were there "to ensure that the girls were not subjected to any kind of mistreatment outside...