S/Arabia’s religious police ordered to be ‘gentle’

Saudi authorities have moved to curb the powers of the religious police, or “mutawa”. Members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice will no longer be permitted to chase suspects or arrest them. They must instead report observations to security forces personnel. Religious police officers, who roam the streets […]

Saudi authorities have moved to curb the powers of the religious police, or “mutawa”.
Members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice will no longer be permitted to chase suspects or arrest them.
They must instead report observations to security forces personnel.
Religious police officers, who roam the streets enforcing strict standards of social behaviour, are frequently accused of abusing their powers.
Several were reportedly arrested in February for allegedly assaulting a young woman outside a shopping centre in the capital, Riyadh.
In 2013, four officers were accused of causing a fatal car crash when they pursued two brothers who had refused to turn the radio down in their vehicle.