Police and the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) have started carrying out Ministry of Interior orders to clamp down on persons wearing clothes that “do not conform with Shariah law” across the Kingdom. The move, which was reported in Al-Watan newspaper Saturday, involves police and the Hai'a making arrests and taking offenders to court, with judges adding that the court testimony of individuals proven guilty as charged would be inadmissible. First time offenders, Al-Watan said, would be handed in to police who would “advise and enlighten” them before taking pledges that their actions would not be repeated. Repeat offenders will be passed over to the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution ahead of being sent to court. The orders, confirmed by Mohsin Al-Raddadi, spokesman for Madina Police, and Hai'a staff in the same region, came last week and were soon followed by the first arrests, accordingly, with most of those charged reportedly teenagers. Judge Ali Bin Sulaiman Al-Saif, President of the Al-Khobar District Court and Judge Adnan Al-Degailan of the General Court in Dammam told Al-Watan that the penalty for wearing indecent clothes in public is discretionary and differs according to the view of the judge. The judges said, however, that some persons charged could be sentenced to imprisonment or lashes of the whip, and described the clothes in question as “undignified”, adding that the judiciary would “not admit the testimony of people proven to have worn such clothes.” Al-Saif and Al-Degailan were quoted by Al-Watan as saying that such behavior constituted “imitating the unbelievers, forbidden in Islam”. The newspaper noted that “Western fashions have become more popular with youth in recent times,” citing as example low-slung jeans worn in imitation of US rap stars which often partially reveal underwear and are known in Saudi Arabia as “tayyihni”. Other fashion statements thought to be the target of the move include the “Afro” hairstyle and necklaces and bracelets. Saudi Gazette reported at the end of August that worshippers in the Eastern Province had been warned they could be arrested by officials if they conducted prayers in mosques sporting “unsuitable” clothes. Imams in the region informed of a ban on persons wearing what they called “unusual and immodest clothes” from entering mosque premises, including those with “strange hairstyles or who use women's bands in their hair.” One imam, who preferred not to be named, said the move followed a noticeable increase in the popularity of “tayyihni” trousers and “haircuts unsuitable for a Muslim at prayer”, in probably reference to the “kadash” Afro hairstyle. “There has been cooperation between imams, the police and the Hai'a in order to detain these violators during prayer,” the imam said. __
