For several months now, Saudi Arabia's religious police have been considering a plan to recruit women into the force. There's no decision so far and some doubt a decision will ever be made, since the plan raises issues which are probably insoluble under the kingdom's gender segregation rules.

The plan is not so much a part of the Saudi "feminisation" campaign (intended to create jobs for women but in segregated conditions) as a response to it. As more women leave the seclusion of their homes for work or study, there are more all-female spaces which the all-male religious police are unable to inspect for signs of supposedly immoral behaviour.

Last month saw a confrontation between the religious police and 
Princess Nora University in Riyadh which is the world's largest women-only university with around 56,000 students and staff.

The religious police – officially known as the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and locally know as the Haia – tried to enter the campus but were turned back by the university's security. The Haia had apparently received reports of men sneaking into the campus and of women running in a marathon (female sport is something they disapprove of).

Ultimately, the Haia want to open a branch office on the campus but the university is saying no because men are not allowed.

One obvious predicament for the Haia is how to employ female members without breaching its own super-strict code of "morality". For a start, they will not be allowed to drive.

In an article for Okaz newspaper, Khalaf al-Harbi comments:

"The woman field member will not have a four-wheel drive car to chase violators because she is not allowed to drive. She will have to run after the violators on foot and to do this, she has to be athletic, when in fact, she is not.

"The Haia is against women’s sports, so its women members will not have the opportunity to maintain their physical fitness that will help them chase violators on foot."

The Saudi Gazette also points out that if women are to use Haia vehicles at all they will need a male driver and also a male guardian to ensure the driver does not get up to sexual mischief.

Harbi adds:

"Women’s movement inside the Haia’s offices to complete office work will be extremely restricted because it will stir the possibility of gender mixing, which the Haia is fighting."

For the Haia, this presents a major problem because it pursues a maximalist line on the question of gender mixing. In September, it clashed with the Labour Ministry which accused it over overstepping agreed rules in connection with shops selling lingerie and women's accessories.

According to the ministry, the Haia had been trying to stop women customers from bringing their male guardians into the shops and wanted the shops to be entirely curtained off from the public.

In mixed-gender shops it had also been demanding opaque partitions between women's sections and other areas so that "outsiders cannot see female customers and workers".

The Haia has thus set the bar extremely high and will have to meet these standards itself should it decide to employ women. If it can't turn its own offices into shining examples of gender apartheid it will be in no position to insist on others doing so.

There's also debate about whether female Haia members should be involved in raids or in making arrests. The Saudi Gazette quotes two shariah experts as saying those are "not suitable" tasks for women and "if the situation calls for intervention, the Haia should send male members".

Khalaf al-Harbi's article ends on a wry note:

"I do not think the study being undertaken by the Haia to employ women will be completed in the near future. The matter requires more than a study; it needs an entire research institute ..."

    
Posted by Brian Whitaker
Thursday, 5 December 2013