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29 March 2024

Saudi religious police to hire women for first time

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By Staff

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police is planning to hire women for the first time in a departure from a long-standing policy excluding females from the powerful police force.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the conservative Gulf Kingdom, said a new law for the re-organization of the Commission would be issued after six months allowing Saudi women to join the force.

But the Commission’s chairman Abdul Lateef Al Shaikh said women would not be given the same male jobs and that they would not be allowed to drive the Commission cars.

“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, quoted by local newspapers.

“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.”