HAIL — A woman selling on the street was detained after being told by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) to cover her face and wear a veil, Al-Hayat reported. Hail Police arrested the woman, who was with her daughter, on Friday and sent her to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution after receiving a report from a Haia official claiming she verbally abused him. The director general of the commission in Hail Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Firaih said if he met the woman in person he would apologize to her immediately. He said: “Regardless of who was right in this case, the Haia member's action was very cruel and inexcusable. “The woman is an elderly person who was trying to make a legitimate living. “Things did not need to escalate to that degree and I would like to thank the media for covering the story.” The woman, Umm Abdulaziz, was released after questioning and she returned to her trade selling on the streets. “I returned to selling on the street despite my physical disabilities and psychological illnesses. “I don't want people to say I was released because I was a foreigner, or I was deported, or I was put in the women's prison for refusing to cover my face.” She added she has been selling on the streets for five years now and she was never harassed by a member of the Haia before. “They would see me and greet me. “They were very friendly and encouraging. “What that one man did was very cruel. “I went for a few minutes to a nearby shop when my daughter called me crying and saying a man from the Haia was yelling and telling everyone on the street to not buy from us.” Umm Abdulaziz added the same man came to them two months before the incident and yelled racist slurs at them. She said she wants compensation over the incident and was willing to go to court.
