Free Republic

One of Iran’s most prominent actors on Wednesday posted an image of herself on social media without the headscarf mandatory for women in the Islamic republic. Taraneh Alidoosti’s apparent act of defiance comes as weeks of protests have rocked the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died in mid-September after being arrested by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly flouting the country’s strict dress rules for women. Alidoosti, one of the best-known actors remaining in Iran and who has publicly backed the protest movement, posted the image of herself with her head uncovered...

The Pew Research Center just released a report this week based on 2012 data which details the use of religious police to enforce what Pew calls “religious norms” and, in one case, “social restrictions.” The data, and the graphic that accompanies the introductory article, show that 17 nations employ religious police. What the article does not mention is that 15 of those 17 nations are Islamic.

A special unit of the religious police pursues magical crime aggressively, and the convicted face death sentences.The sorceress was naked. The sight of her bare flesh startled the prudish officers of Saudi Arabia's infamous religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), which had barged into her room in what was supposed to be a routine raid of a magical hideout in the western desert city of Madinah's Al-Seeh neighborhood. They paused in shock, and to let her dress. The woman -- still unclothed -- managed to slip out of the window of...

Saudi Arabia is to limit the power of its notorious religious police, raising hopes that draconian social controls will be eased in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom. After years of complaints of humiliation and abuse, particularly from women, the all-male agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice could be emasculated by the reforms. Sheikh Abdullatiff Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, the head of the force, said that its authority to arrest and question suspects would be transferred to regular police officers, while it also would be unable to carry out raids on homes without prior and higher...

Saudi religious police HQ targeted by sex maniacs Tried to create a sex video right in front of the police headquarter signboard By  Staff Published Sunday, November 27, 2011 Three Saudi men parked their car close to the headquarters of the Gulf Kingdom’s feared religious police late night, got out and started having sex with a woman accompanying them just in front of the massive police signboard. They were filming themselves with the aim publicising the shot to defame the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the Muslim nation....

Haia men ready to block New Year festivities By MD HUMAIDAN | ARAB NEWSPublished: Dec 24, 2010 23:06 Updated: Dec 24, 2010 23:06 JEDDAH: The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) has directed all its branch offices to be on the lookout for any year-end celebration, the director general of the Haia in Makkah province Sheikh Ahmad Al-Ghamdi said in a statement to Arab News on Friday. "The Haia will immediately dismantle any form of preparations for the celebrations but if these preparations are out of its jurisdiction, it will take up the matter with...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia has launched a nationwide crackdown on stores selling items that are red or otherwise allude to the banned celebration of Valentine's Day. A Saudi official says the feared religious police are inspecting shops for red roses, heart-shaped products or gifts wrapped in red, and ordering storeowners to get rid of them. Red-colored or heart-shaped items are legal at other times of the year, but as Feb. 14 nears they become contraband in Saudi Arabia...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – The Saudi king on Saturday dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing the owners of TV networks that broadcast "immoral" content, signaling an effort to weaken the country's hard-line Sunni establishment. The shake-up — King Abdullah's first since coming to power in August 2005 — included the appointment of a female deputy minister, the highest government position a Saudi woman has attained. snip Khashoggi said Faisal has been working behind the scenes on plans to reform education. After the Sept. 11 attacks, carried out by 19 Arabs, including 15 Saudis,...

Saudi religious police patrol the malls, ensuring the only mingling of sexes is among immediate family members and that women are properly covered head to toe in black.

Saudi man, woman face flogging for research work 06 Jul 2008 09:45:28 GMT RIYADH, July 6 (Reuters) - A Saudi appeals court is due this week to review the case of a biochemist and his female student sentenced to jail and flogging after a lower court ruled their research contact was a front for a telephone affair. The man was sentenced to 8 months in prison and 600 lashes and his student to 4 months in prison and 350 lashes last November for establishing a phone relationship that led her to divorce her husband. London-based Amnesty International says it will...

A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh, according to a report in The Times of London on Thursday. Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's "Mutaween" police, The Times reported. "Some men came up to us with very...

Religious police in Saudi Arabia arrest mother for sitting with a man   Sonia Verma in Dubai   A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh. Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's “Mutaween” police. Her story offers...

ABU-DHABI, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's religious police are insisting that authorities of Medina, one of Islam's holiest cities, should build separate sidewalks for women, the Kuwaiti al-Qabas newspaper reported Friday. The country's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, tasked with enforcing Sharia law, believes men and women should not be allowed to mix on the streets of the Islam's second holiest place, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried. The clerical police, or Mutaween, are authorized to arrest unrelated men and women caught socializing, anyone suspected of being homosexual or a prostitute, and to enforce...

Western-style Barbers Get the Chop in Iran August 24, 2007 The Guardian Robert Tait in Tehran Police in Tehran have closed two dozen barber shops and hairdressers in a fortnight in the latest phase of a "morals" crackdown aimed at enforcing Islamic dress codes among young Iranians. The businesses were shut after being identified as purveyors of decadent "western" culture. Eleven women's hair-stylists were told to stop trading for offering customers' tattoos. Tattooed eyebrows - in which the hair is shaved and replaced with elaborate patterns - are popular amongst many young Iranian women. One women's salon was shut when...

Man reported dead of fright in Saudi vice police custody AFP August 12, 2007 RIYADH -- A Bangladeshi man died of fright after being arrested by Saudi Arabia's controversial religious police for washing a car instead of praying, a local newspaper reported Sunday. The unnamed man died last week in the holy city of Medina after being detained by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Al Jazirah reported. The Arabic daily said the man "convulsed in fear after he was arrested, leading to a drop in his blood pressure, and causing his death."...

On a hot and humid evening two months ago, a dozen police cars rolled up to the simple Riyadh residence of Salman al-Huraisi, a 28-year-old hotel security guard. The policemen stormed into the house, breaking down doors, tearing through personal belongings and crying, "God is great!" Then they arrested al-Huraisi, along with 10 other family members. His alleged crime: consuming and selling beer. Al-Huraisi's visitors were members of Saudi Arabia's religious police, a 10,000-strong force called the Commission for the Protection of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice. Back at the commission's local headquarters, events took a tragic turn: al-Huraisi...

Singer held over dressing Friday July 6, 2007 IPOH: The Perak Religious Department (JAIP) has ordered a singer to appear before the Syariah Court for “exposing her body” during a performance and “encouraging immoral activities”. However, an indignant Siti Noor Idayu Abd Moin, 22, said she was wearing a sleeveless top and long pants when JAIP officers raided an entertainment outlet in Sunway City where she was performing on Tuesday. "Our band had just finished and it was a little past midnight when they came in and rounded up all the Muslims. “They asked to see our MyKad but one...

For the last two years, the Saudi Arabian government has been under increasing pressure to disband the religious police (the mutaween). But the royal family has to move carefully in curbing the worst excesses of the religious police. Doing something serious to shut them down would anger the religious ultra-conservatives. Moreover, a large part of the ruling elite, including many in the royal family, shares those conservative views. A year ago the government began curbing the powers of its religious police, fearing that these guardians of correct Islamic behavior, were becoming more a source of irritation for most Saudis, and...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - As the car stopped outside a Riyadh amusement park, two bearded men dragged the driver from the wheel and took the three women on a wild ride of more than an hour, bouncing over sidewalks and finally abandoning them on a darkened street. The women at first thought they had been kidnapped by terrorists. The two men however, said they were religious police. It might have gone down as just one more excess of zealousness by the forces charged with upholding Islamic modesty, except that Umm Faisal, the senior of three women, did something that is...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Three members of Saudi Arabia's religious police will stand trial this week for their involvement in the death of a man in their custody, an unprecedented action against the powerful enforcers of the country's strict moral code. The death, the second in the custody of the religious police in the past month, has triggered calls for a reevaluation of the force's role and responsibilities, and generated a media uproar -- a first in a country where criticism of the religious establishment had until recently been off-limits. "Things have gotten so out of hand that the commission...