Saudi Arabia collapses on “immoral acts”

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Rouula Khalaf, the editor of the FT, selects his favorite stories in this weekly information bulletin.

Saudi Arabia arrested more than 50 suspects for crimes, including prostitution and begging, after the prince of the Crown Mohammed bin Salman ordered the creation of a unit to “immoral acts” by the police, with the years of weakening the social restrictions.

The Ministry of Interior – established to address “community security and human trafficking” – arrested 11 women for prostitution, the first time Saudi authorities they publicly recognized the existence of practice in more than a decade.

He also rounded dozens of foreigners for “immoral acts” in the massage salons and for the forcing women and children to work as street beggars.

The initiative has attracted comparisons with the Committee for promoting virtue and prevention of vice, a religious police force that has long been notorious because it has harshly applied some of the strictest gender segregation and moral codes beforehand Prince Mohammed He stripped him by many of his powers in 2016.

Since then, the de facto leader has pushed an aggressive agenda to diversify the economy and relax the strict social and religious morals, such as raising decades on music and cinemas. While the government announced a “public decency” law in 2019, it was not strictly applied.

Analysts said it is not clear what has triggered the repression. But Khalid Al-Sulaiman, a chronicler for Semi-Okaz Daily, wrote that the community security unit was established in response to “notable increased activity” in alleged violations of morality and sex, including advertising on such activities on socializing platforms.

“Our country has a special religious and social identity as the birthplace of Islam and no one should distort the image of Saudi society that has been established over the years as a society dominated by moral and social values,” he wrote last month.

“If such immoral and illegal practices have been previously done in secret, those who practice them today should never feel that they can appear in public.”

Some Saudi social media users have suggested that the community security unit represents a return of the religious police, but “without a long beard.”

But other public members greeted the movement. “The cracking of human trafficking is a good thing,” said Bandar, a three-year-old father who did not want to give his last name. “Let them clean the country.”

With the growth of new economic activities, such as tourism, rapid social changes and arrival of several foreign workers, the authorities have aroused with an apparent increase in apparent growth Drug abuse and prostitution.

While the data is rare, anecdotal evidence has suggested that some reductions in visa restrictions and borders on women’s freedom have allowed sexual trade.

The Ministry of Interior declared last month that the unit will combat “the offenses that violate personal rights, violates the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Sharia law and the kingdom’s legal system or compromises in any way individual dignity.”

Analysts claim that presentation of the unit as an effort to protect freedoms and rights can indicate that the government wants to prevent criticism against human rights and Western powers.

“Usually, the classification of such ads would be around the Security, rather than human rights,” said Sultan Alamer, a senior resident at the New Lines Institute in Washington.

The kingdom is expected to receive increased control in the coming years, while preparing to host major international events, including the 2034 World Football Cup and is trying to attract foreign investments.