ABU DHABI Ñ Outraged Saudis are publicly
criticizing the religious police for the first time ever in the wake of a fire that killed 15 schoolgirls who were prevented from escaping because they were not wearing their mandatory head veils.
In an unprecedented outburst, prominent Saudis have called for a
reassessment of the religious police and the resignation of a senior Saudi
official in connection for the death of 16 in a Mecca girls school last
week. The religious police are part of an agency called the Commission for
the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
Saudi dailies have published detailed accounts of how religious police
prevented firemen from helping schoolgirls escape a blaze, Middle East Newsline reported. The result was
the death of
15 students and a teacher last week in an explosion and subsequent fire at a
girls high school in Mecca. The people were killed in the stampede to escape
the fire when they were trapped in the facility by religious police who
locked the gate.
"People claiming to be in the religious police hampered rescue efforts
and prevented the evacuation of students," a Saudi civil defense report
said.
The religious police have been a feature of the Saudi regime since its
inception. The police, known as "mutaween," are regarded as above the law
and have periodically launched crackdowns on Westerners or against
appearances of modernity in the Wahabi kingdom.
Critics said that any Saudi can claim to be a member of the religious
policy in order to assert his authority and terrorize at will. They said
such a claim is rarely challenged, including by Saudi security officers.
"Who gave these people the right to decide whether these poor children
and teachers should live, die or suffer?" Saudi industrialist Rakan Alireza
wrote in the English-language Arab News. "In fact, who are these people in
whose hands the fate of our daughters and sisters lies?"
Witnesses said religious police stopped the rescue of the girls, ages
13-17, because they tried to flee the school without the mandatory head
veil. They said some of the girls who escaped were beaten by religious
police because they were not veiled.
At the same time, a fight broke out between civil defense officers and
people who prevented them from entering the school on religious grounds. A
newspaper photographer who tried to record the incident was attacked by a
school administrator.
The result has been calls published in newspapers for an investigation
and resignation of officials responsible for the deaths. They included a
demand for the resignation of a senior Saudi Education Ministry official Ali
Al Morshed, responsible for female education in the kingdom. Interior
Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz has pledged to open a special
government department to deal with women's issues.
"The mentality and sterile methods practiced by the department of female
education is behind the tragedy," Saudi analyst Abdul Aziz Al Sowaigh said
in the Riyad-based Okaz daily.
Zuhair Al Harithy, a columnist for Al Iqtissadiya, agreed. "Any
investigation has to be followed by mass resignations involving all those
connected with the incident," he wrote. "Even before that, there must be
sackings and other forms of punishment."
