Raw Video: Saudi Woman Defies Religious Police

May 25, 2012 from MEMRI TV

A Saudi woman films her ordeal as she is harassed by Saudi Arabia's religious police for wearing nail polish in a shopping mall. She refuses to comply with an order from the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) to leave the area; instead, she records the whole encounter and seeks the help of mall security and the police. However, she may have violated the law by videotaping the religious police at work.

In the video, the woman threatens to post what she is recording to social media sites; indeed, the footage has gone viral in the few days since it was posted, with a number of journalists and women's rights activists cheering her on through Twitter.

(more) (less)

In This Video

Women's rights in Saudi Arabia

n/a Explore this topic

Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice

The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice or HAIA is the Saudi Arabian government bureaucracy employing "religious police" or mutaween to enforce Sharia Law within that Islamic nation. Its approximately 3,500 members, and many more volunteers, patrol... Explore this topic

Women in Arab societies

Women in the Arab world, as in other areas of the world, have throughout history experienced discrimination and have been subject to restrictions of their freedoms and rights. Some of these practices are based on religious beliefs, but many of the limitations are cultural and ... Explore this topic

Women in Islam

The study of women in Islam investigates the role of women within the religion of Islam. The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by Islamic texts, the history and culture of the Muslim world. The Qur'an states that both men and women are equal, but also, as... Explore this topic

Women's Rights

Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls of many societies worldwide. In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed. They differ from bro... Explore this topic

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the largest Arab state in Western Asia by land area and the second-largest in the Arab world. It is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates ... Explore this topic

Twitter

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or an application such as Twitterrific. Twitter was founded in March 2006... Explore this topic

Mutaween

The mutaween are the government-authorized or government-recognized religious police of Saudi Arabia. They are also religious-policing organizations in Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and the former Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with at least some government recognition o... Explore this topic

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping center/centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct, or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking ar... Explore this topic

Nail polish

Nail polish is a lacquer applied to human finger or toe nails to decorate and protect the nail plate. Today's nail polish is a refined version similar to the paint on vehicles. However, its formula has been revised repeatedly in order to prevent the cracking or flaking that oc... Explore this topic

Also See

Women's rights in Saudi Arabia

Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice

Women in Islam

Watch Next

2:35

CNN | Aug 13

In Saudi Arabia, the government is planning to construct a women-only city in the Eastern Province's Hofuf to boost the number of women in the Saud...