Hijab;- religious police made 15 school girls burn to death

During an interview that aired on Egyptian Dream2 TV January 10, Saudi journalist Nadin Al-Badir relayed horrific instances of abuse and murder — including forcing over a dozen school girls to perish
in a fire because they were not wearing traditional
Islamic head coverings — carried out by the
country’s religious police or, the “Authority for the
Promotion of Virtue.” The journalist also revealed
that most of these police are “ex-cons who used to be drug users or drug dealers.” Al-Badir explained that, “Even Sheik Abd Al-
Muhsen Al-Abikan, advisor to the royal court,
suggested that the Authority should be abolished.”
She added, “He said that most of them were drug
dealers, drug users, thieves, and ex-cons who
repented, all of a sudden, and became violently extreme. These people, according to Sheik Al-
Abikan, should not be allowed to have such
authorities, because they use it in inappropriate
ways.” At the opening of the segment, Al-Badir told the
story of 28-year-old Hassan Nabil Hmeid, who was
ultimately beaten to death for growing his hair long. “At the end of the day, all the matters they pursue
are superficial ones.” Al-Badir said of the Authority. “What matters is that this young man’s life came to
an end because of backward, reactionary people,
who would like to take us back hundreds of years in
time. I don’t think the situation back then was as
bad as they would like it to be.” Al-Badir also relived a heinous incident in which
a fire broke out in a girls’ school in Saudi Arabia but
all of the female students inside were forced to
remain in the building and burn to death simply
because they were not wearing their hijabs
(traditional Islamic head coverings). ADVERTISEMENT “It would have been easy to extinguish the fire
without any girl getting hurt,” a pained Al-Badir
began. “But members of the Authority for the
Promotion of Virtue stood at the door of the school
and prevented any student from leaving, because
the girls were not wearing the hijab.” “How were they supposed to get a hijab when the
school was going up in flames?” she asked
incredulously. “They prevented the fire brigade from entering to
extinguish the fire, and they prevented the parents
from going in…” “But it is a duty to save them from death,” the
interviewer attempted to reason. “Who cares if they
are wearing the abaya or not?” “Their mission is to save you from the Hellfire, not
from death,” Al-Badir responded. “They believe that
you are martyred in such a case. I don’t know what
was going through their minds at that moment.” Al-Badir continued: I’m talking about 13-year-old girls, not
university students. These were
schoolgirls. 15 girls from the school died –
because of the Authority for Prevention of
Vice and Promotion of Virtue, and not
because of the fire. They could easily have been rescued. Has any member of the
Authority been placed on trial? Not that
we’ve seen. The department of girls’
education was annexed to the Education
Ministry, but the Authority is never held
accountable. It punishes, but is never punished itself. You can never get justice.
Even if they stab or kill you, nobody can
hold them accountable. Al-Badir said that complaints filed against the
Authority are futile, as no court action is ever taken
in victims’ defense. She also noted that the rate of
“all forms of sexual harassment is the highest it
has ever been.” “The Authority is the enemy of society. How can it
protect it?” Watch Al-Badir relay these chilling accounts below.
Video and translation courtesy of the ever-vigilant