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Monday, March 15, 2010

"Unacceptable trousers"

From the Saudi Gazette:
MADINA – A man here has accused the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a) of assaulting him and holding him illegally inside a restaurant on Sultana Street on Saturday because they found his trousers unacceptable.

Muhammad Sultan said he had pulled over at the restaurant to buy breakfast for his wife and her mother, who were in the car, when a Hai’a member approached him and asked for identification “claiming that I was suspicious”, Sultan said.

Sultan said that he refused to give the Hai’a staff his identification card until a police officer was present “for matters to be clear”.

“When I started dialing the police, the Hai’a member and his colleague confined me in the restaurant and assaulted me in front of my family and the other customers.” Half an hour after that, Sultan said, one of the Hai’a staff called the police. Five officers arrived. “I gave an officer my identification and he asked the Hai’a member why I was held and the man replied that I was wearing trousers that are unacceptable. Everyone in the restaurant thought the trousers were normal and socially acceptable,” Sultan said.

Sultan added that the police took him to the station at the insistence of the two Hai’a members. He said he was held at the station for four hours. The Hai’a interrogated his wife and mother-in-law to confirm “they were related to me”.
Thank Allah that the man's trousers were not seen by more people!