Saudi religious police to recruit women

Saudi Arabia is planning to recruit women for the first time in its feared religious police in a departure from a long-standing ban and social barriers that bar females from many jobs, the police chief was reported on Thursday as saying.

Women in the conservative Muslim Gulf kingdom have so far been banned from joining the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which has often triggered controversy because of its tough ways in dealing with people.

“We now need women to work for the Commission…our vision is that they will work separately from men under the direct supervision of an autonomous division…we hope this will happen soon,” Abdul Lateef al Shaikh told Okaz newspaper.

He said women recruits would be deployed at places confined to females but he did not specify when the plan would be implemented.

He said the Commission has decided to recruit women in line with instructions by King Abdullah who “strongly believes in giving women them their full rights.”

The Commission, the most influential police force in Saudi Arabia, has been under fire by the local media and many websites over its tough ways in dealing with people in the kingdom. Newspapers have reported scores of incidents in which Commission members attacked people or dealt harshly with women.

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