Saudi Arabia, Vice squad eases up
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: McClatchy
Change is seeping slowly into Saudi Arabia, a Persian Gulf nation of 28 million residents — half of whom are under age 25 — and nowhere is the social friction more apparent than inside the religious police force that imposes the Kingdom's conservative interpretation of Islam. Faced with increasing resistance to their intrusive policies, Gifari and the religious police are struggling to adapt. Officially known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the religious police has hired outside marketing professionals to spruce up its image, publicly apologized for actions (such as detaining a Saudi man spotted kissing his wife in a mall parking lot), and visibly reduced its presence in some parts of the country. (07/07/09)