Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on Tuesday removed four of its staff from the Riyadh office after it found them guilty of assaulting a British national and his Saudi wife....Update: a little bit of video of the guy being jumped on for being in the women's checkout lane can be seen at the Daily Mail here.
Reports late on Friday said that the Briton was approached by the members of the Commission when he took a check-out at a supermarket reserved for women and families.
When they asked him about his presence in the special lane, he answered that he was with his wife and had the right to use it.
However, the Commission members felt frustrated by the answer and followed the couple until they reached their car outside the mall where they had a physical altercation.
I'd hate to see what they do to someone who goes through the "12 items or less" lane with 13 things.
And by the way, the Daily Mail site has a picture of Riyadh, a city you don't often see much of:
What's the building that looks like the eye of a needle? I'll have to check: I see, it's Kingdom Centre, which has a shopping mall, hotel and apartments. [And, being Saudi Arabia, public floggings in the courtyard on the hour for men caught looking sideways at women with accidentally exposed ankles.]
You can also go up to the "skybridge" at the top. Photos at its website here.
Update: looking around at other local websites reporting this widely publicised story, I have to admit that most of the 40 comments at Arab News (most of which appear to be Saudis) are critical of the Virtue Police. One comment details another incident, which I repeat for its comedy value (as long as you're not the victim):
There have been many such instances which either go unreported or no action is taken even after a complaint is lodged. A few years ago, the religious police raided a staff house belonging to a corporate in Olaya locality of Riyadh which housed a few Keralites among which one of them happened to be a friend. The religious police searched the entire flat and found a few pornographic CD's, all the flat members were locked up in the toilet from 10 PM to 4 AM and the entire duration was spent by the religious police examining the evidence thoroughly on a flat screen television. Fortunately the flat members were let out after the call for Fajr salah and the religious police left without saying a word.
1 comment:
The reference to the eye of the needle has no basis in fact, however it is believed that the phrase should actually be interpreted as "the knees of the idle", which has been historically attributed to Tim Blair and other people with hate boners when referring to Muslims kneeling and praying to Allah.
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