Home > Newsletter > April 2002

SAUDI ARABIA IS NOT A VACATION PARADISE

Don't believe for a minute that the harsh treatment of women in Saudi Arabia is limited to its citizens. Western women expatriates living in Saudi Arabia are continually harassed by militant local youths and the religious police. The Guardian newspaper in London, England reports that the harassment has become worse since September 11th.

The newspaper reports that many British who work in Saudi Arabia, both men and women, are leaving. "Only the hard-core are staying," one returning Brit said, but most are leaving when their contracts expire.

One female British worker in Saudi, Ms. June Thomas, said, "Women can be picked up for anything. If they are outside a shop waiting for it to open when the owner comes back from prayers, they were mutaween bait. The mutaween accuse them of loitering to pick up a man, of being prostitutes. They are thrown straight in jail because they have no facilities in the police stations to question women." She said.

Ms. Thomas has worked for five years as a hospital security "female investigator". It is her job to educate western women about Islamic law and to represent them if they get in trouble with authorities. Now she is leaving. What was the last straw for her? Three young western women were arrested and thrown in jail for three days with no food or water after being strip searched in a corridor. They became dangerously dehydrated. What was their crime? At an empty Italian restaurant with three other nurses, two of the group had bared their arms while eating.

My advice: Scratch Saudi Arabia off your list of vacation destinations.

Keep in mind that Saudi Arabia is our "moderate" ally in the war against Islamic terror. The reality is that most of the funding for Islamic terror comes from Saudi and the antihuman treatment of women is the bench mark of the Saudi society which is based on Islam.