Two undercover Muttwas caught me yesterday in Rabwa area in exit 14 in Riyadh city for doing a deal with a foreign man. The religious police were very happy to caught a lady that is not covering her face with unrelated man, they were so happy that they let the man who I was doing the deal with go and they parked their cars in away that it would obstruct the road so I won’t be able to escape.
Anyways, they Muttwas asked the Saudi taxi driver in a very serious voice tone to leave the car. The taxi driver who drove me to Rabwa area was so scared that he got out of the car immediately while I was still sitting in the back seat. One Muttwa held the driver so he won’t try to runaway. Few seconds later, I saw the other Muttwa approaching me, he was walking to the car where I was in so I opened the window to talk to him.
The Muttwa: what were you doing with the guy in the ford?
Omaima: I was buying a thing from the internet called online shopping..!! and I am here to get the product and pay him the money .
The Muttwa: I am not a fool, I am going to call for back up from the religious police.
Omaima: Whatever..
The Muttwa: why are not covering your face, aren’t you a Saudi woman?
Omaima: Yes I’m Saudi.
The Muttwa: where are you from?
Omaima: Eastern region.
mean while there was also another Muttwa ( from the religious police) investgating with the taxi driver.
It didn’t take time for the back up religious police to get to the location. 2 other Muttwas came with their black jeep car and they both got in the car and started asking me questions like are you Shiite?? do you believe in god? are you muslim??
it was really awkward!! I never thought that I look like atheist!! lol!!
The Muttwa asked me what happened and when I told him that it was a deal he said ” how can you prove that it was just a deal? ”
I said you can ask the taxi driver he heard me talking to the man on the phone and I’ll call the man who I made the deal with to come and speak with you. Then ,he asked me to call the man and put it on speaker so he would hear how the man would talk with me. I said ” alright”.
I called the man and ..
Omaima: Salam Mr. B
Mr. B: sounded like he was surprised that I called after an hour, walikum alslam.. whats wrong sister? you didn’t like the product??
Omaima: No, it’s not about the product. I am with the religious Police and they are investigating with me for talking to you, they think that the deal we had is more than just a product. They asked me to prove that I’m innocent and I told him that perhaps you can tell them that we had nothing going on between the 2 of us.
Mr. B: Sure, I’m coming now sister.
Man you can tell that the Muttwas were very disappointed when the man kept calling me sister…!!!!!!!! lol
It was strong proof that I was buying the product from him when he was the first to talk about it saying: ” whats wrong, you didn’t like the product?”
So I told the Muttwa .. see I told you… now I am going to sue your mates of wasting 2 hours of my precious short life and for committing Qathf.
In Islamic Shariah law if you launch an outrageous accusation like prostitution or having sex for money and then the accused woman or man prosecutes you in courts and you didn’t prove that accusation then you’ll be sentenced to 80 lashes (the punishment of committing Qathf).
I was literally threatening the religious police . Then, I demanded apology for the driver and for me. they had apologized to us and told me to call the man ( whom I was making the deal with) back and tell him things are alright now and that he don’t have to come.
Although it was cold yesterday, yet I was sweating because I was really angry!!!
There was a point when the religious police and I were just yelling at each other and non of us listening to what the other party has to say. Things got really out of control but when I told them I’m going to sue them since they don’t have proof other than seeing me exchanging money in the street with unrelated man and yet they are insisting that it was more than that, they started to back up. I went to school today and told my friends about it and they were very shocked that I went to Rabwa area, they said that the main building for the religious police is located right there and this area is full of Muttwas and I should have chosen other areas!!!!
Honestly, I didn’t know that this area is full of Muttwas but now I know, I will never go there again.
Later on I asked the driver what kind of questions did they started asking him and my mouth dropped to the floor when he told me they were asking questions like.. ” does she ask you to take her to weird places where unusual things happen?”
”have you ever noticed anything on the way she talks or dress that may indicate that she is not a good girl?”
”does she pay you money to take her to work?” . .. ” is she married?” ” have she ever tried to approach you?” .. etc..
Basically, they wanted the driver to say anything bad about that would be enough for them to take me away and charge me of committing prostitution or something, specially that they saw me exchanging money with the man,isn’t this outrageous??!!!!!!
When I was 20 years old, I have had a similar ethical issues with 2 men belong to rich and well-known family and I went to the court alone and sued their A**es and I won the case. That tought me a lot on how to confront sheikhs and how to speak up for myself. Sometimes I feel frustrated on how hard it is to do the simplest thing that would probably be normal if I was living somewhere ales. Yet, I feel happy living independently and solving my problems on my own knowing that not a lot of Saudi single girls lives away from their parents.
