American Businesswoman Jailed In Saudi For Going To Starbucks
The guys that went up to her in Starbucks sound like some kind of Gestapo/Secret Police….
A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia’s religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh.
Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom’s “Mutaween” police.
Her story offers a rare first-hand glimpse of the discrimination faced by women living in Saudi Arabia. In her first interview with the foreign press, Yara told The Times that she would remain in Saudi Arabia to challenge its harsh enforcement of conservative Islam rather than return to America.
“If I want to make a difference I have to stick around. If I leave they win. I can’t just surrender to the terrorist acts of these people,” said Yara, who moved to Jeddah eight years ago with her husband, a prominent businessman.
Her ordeal began with a routine visit to the new Riyadh offices of her finance company, where she is a managing partner.
The electricity temporarily cut out, so Yara and her colleagues — who are all men — went to a nearby Starbucks to use its wireless internet.
She sat in a curtained booth with her business partner in the café’s “family” area, the only seats where men and women are allowed to mix.
For Yara, it was a matter of convenience. But in Saudi Arabia, public contact between unrelated men and women is strictly prohibited.
“Some men came up to us with very long beards and white dresses. They asked ‘Why are you here together?’. I explained about the power being out in our office. They got very angry and told me what I was doing was a great sin,” recalled Yara, who wears an abaya and headscarf, like most Saudi women.
The men were from Saudi Arabia’s Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a police force of several thousand men charged with enforcing dress codes, sex segregation and the observance of prayers.
Yara, whose parents are Jordanian and grew up in Salt Lake City, once believed that life in Saudi Arabia was becoming more liberal. But on Monday the religious police took her mobile phone, pushed her into a cab and drove her to Malaz prison in Riyadh. She was interrogated, strip-searched and forced to sign and fingerprint a series of confessions pleading guilty to her “crime”.
“They took me into a filthy bathroom, full of water and dirt. They made me take off my clothes and squat and they threw my clothes in this slush and made me put them back on,” she said. Eventually she was taken before a judge.
“He said ‘You are sinful and you are going to burn in hell’. I told him I was sorry. I was very submissive. I had given up. I felt hopeless,” she said.
Yara’s husband, Hatim, used his political contacts in Jeddah to track her whereabouts. He was able to secure her release.
“I was lucky. I met other women in that prison who don’t have the connections I did,” she said. Her story has received rare coverage in Saudi Arabia, where the press has been sharply critical of the police.
(TimesOnline)
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
Where is Billary Clinton and all her cronies, crying about the treatment of moslem women in their countries? Where is Amnesty International? Where are the “Human Rights activists”???? Hypocritical cowards all.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:48 pm“The men were from Saudi Arabia’s Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a police force of several thousand men charged with enforcing dress codes, sex segregation and the observance of prayers”
So are these guys for hire? we could pay them, if they knew what they could make over here busting Hollywood parties.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:49 amPat, thats it a weekly serial called Candid Jihadi Camera
where these guys pop in on the rich and famous Democrats on the left coast. Who wouldn’t want to see that?
if I hear of anymore reports like this I am going to go NUTS!! why are they so insecure in these countries?
February 7th, 2008 at 3:50 amshe must be a slut, for allah says so
February 7th, 2008 at 4:09 amOnce again we see that the perverted culture of Islam is still practicing there oppression on women since the six century. Of course the powers of be in our nation will probably will say NOTHING! And do you know why? We are still hooked on oil like a drug addict and have to depend on the perverted Saudis for the oil!! We are now at a crossroads where we can be energy independent or eventually taken over by Islam when all they can do is just hold back the oil. Like a drug addict we will give in to there demands and probably PAY more for the oil. Either we stand up to these corrupt souls or just fade into history like what happen to so many countries who failed to stand up to tyranny. It your choice America.
February 7th, 2008 at 5:21 am