News from Saudi Arabia, where “morality police” tell girls to cover their faces and beat them up if they don’t obey fast enough.

Manama: One of the two girls who had a bitter standoff with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, in Riyadh said they had been the victims of “blatant injustice.”

A video clip of a woman being beaten up in front of the Nakheel Mall in Riyadh sparked outrage in Saudi Arabia this week amid contrasting reports about what really took place.

The article has the video but it’s just a note from YouTube:

This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying.

No, YouTube, the video documents bullying by Saudi officials, so removing it is not helpful.

Another source has a not-yet-banned version:

https://youtu.be/A6DlHxe7D-I

The girl said that she was walking with her friend in front of the mall looking for a taxi when they were stopped by a Commission patrol.

One of the men asked the two to cover their faces, but the girls initially resisted the order. However, they acquiesced when they saw the man getting off the car and approaching them, she said, Al Hayat daily reported.

“The Commission member asked us if we were students or employees, and wanted to take us into the vehicle,” the girl said. “However, as we realised [there was a] large number of Commission members, we refused and insisted that they call our families. However, the Commission member did not listen and he and others tried to pull us inside the van by force,” she said.

The girl managed to flee into the mall even though the Commission member was shouting to the guards to stop and apprehend her.

“They [guards] did not obey him and I was able to escape. My friend ran away towards the main avenue, and everybody saw on social media what happened to her. She was eventually kept away from the Commission members and put on a bus that took her home. She was in a terrible state. The Commission took her bag and some of her belongings, but she managed to keep the mobile phone that they wanted to wrestle out of her hand,” she said.

Girls aren’t allowed to leave their prisons in Saudi Arabia.