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29 March 2024

Saudi religious police face opposition to hire women

Abdul Lateef Al Shaikh (Supplied)

Published
By Staff

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police have decided to suspend a plan to recruit local women for the first time after facing opposition in the conservative Moslem Gulf Kingdom, its chairman was reported on Thursday as saying.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said early this year it would hire women for the first time after it was given a green light by King Abdullah in a departure from a long-standing police excluding females from the powerful force.

“I can affirm that we are in need of women within the Commission but I cannot set a date for this,” the Commission chairman Abdul Lateef Al Shaikh said.

“This issue is not in my hands…there are some opponents to such plans as they look at the issue from a perspective which is different from ours…we have made clear that we need women to be posed at hospitals, girls’ schools, female societies and markets.”

Al Shaikh did not specify the opponents but in earlier remarks, he said women would not be given the same male jobs and that they would not be allowed to drive the Commission cars before a general ban on women’s driving in the country is lifted.

“So far, we do not have any women in the Commission and people expect women to work like men…but I can say that women’s role would be organized and restricted to them and I hope the country’s leaders to approve the employment of women in the Commission,” he said in recent local press comments.

“We want the female element in the Commission because we desperately need women to support our activities as sometimes we face embarrassing situations in public places, markets and female clubs…I believe women would support men in their mission within the Commission but they need training before taking the job.”