Saudi woman jailed and strip searched for sitting in coffee shop with business colleague

[seafan]

'I was scared for my life'

05/02/2008 17:05 - (SA)

Riyadh - Saudi Arabia's religious police detained and strip-searched a woman for sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop with a male work colleague who is not a member of her family, Arab News reported on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old financial consultant, named only as Yara, told the paper she was arrested on Monday by members of the powerful Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
She was holding a business meeting with the man in a branch of Starbucks in Riyadh, in a section reserved for families as is the rule in Saudi Arabia where unrelated members of the opposite sex are segregated in public, she said.

Yara said she was taken to a Riyadh prison, strip-searched and forced to sign a confession to having been caught alone with an unrelated man - an illegal act in the kingdom which enforces a strict Islamic moral code.

"I had no other choice" but to sign, said the married mother of three. "I was scared for my life... I was afraid that they would abuse me or do something to me."
She said the religious police, known as the Muttawa, released her several hours later after her husband, Hatim, intervened. "I look at this as if she had been kidnapped by thugs," said Hatim.
The paper said the man with whom Yara had coffee, an unnamed Syrian financial analyst, was also arrested and remains in custody.

Saudi Arabia's 5 000-strong religious police have been investigated over a number of deaths that occurred while they raided homes or kept people in custody.

.....

A United Nations report released on Friday said that women in the conservative Muslim state are the victims of systematic and pervasive discrimination across all aspects of social life.

[indepat]

1. Don'tcha just love our Saudi buds, their customs

[leftynyc]

2. Do you honestly think that

Saudi Arabia is the only Muslim country this would happen in?

[indepat]

9. Naw, it's just they're our biggest buddies and probably have been the biggest funders of

terra: besides, was it not 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 who were from, you know where?

[Bonobo]

3. Big deal! LOOK AT THIS VIDEO FROM OHIO! US Rapist Police Officers!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=89734&mesg_id=89734

[seafan]

4. The health or sickness of a country lies in how it treats its women.

Just horrific.

God help us.

[Bonobo]

7. I can not believe it. The horror of that video has me shaken badly.

And the fact that we are content (relatively) with the existence of it is worse.

[seabeyond]

8. it isnt like men cant get naked women everywhere, tv, computers, games, movies

bars.... fuckin everywhere one turns their head they have access to a naked woman. now they have to pull them off the streets and strip them down.

yes, i think this is all indicitive of who we are becoming as people

[Blaze Diem]

5. If Bush could make this one a US law, he's do it in a heartbeat.

"Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice"
Why our Civil Rights are worth fighting for.

[lumpy]

6. Damn ! How in the world could a US president publically hold

hands with and kiss (on the mouth, yet) anyone for political purposes. Can you imagine any of our presidents submitting themselves to this ? Jesus Christ !