Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06JEDDAH274
2006-04-09 07:17:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Jeddah
Cable title:  

JEDDAH JOURNAL 10 - FEMALE MORAL POLICE, OIC-OSCE

Tags:  ELAB KISL KWMN PHUM PREL SA SCUL 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO7114
PP RUEHDE
DE RUEHJI #0274/01 0990717
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 090717Z APR 06
FM AMCONSUL JEDDAH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9024
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1331
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1409
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 6375
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000274 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP;
PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/04/2015
TAGS: ELAB KISL KWMN PHUM PREL SA SCUL
SUBJECT: JEDDAH JOURNAL 10 - FEMALE MORAL POLICE, OIC-OSCE
MEETING, HONORARY MUSLIM, MORE ON WOMEN DRIVING, AND LITTLE
CHARITY FOR AILING DOMESTICS


Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller, for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

WOMEN MAY SOON BE PERMITTED TO GUIDE THE PEOPLE IN VIRTUE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000274

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP;
PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/04/2015
TAGS: ELAB KISL KWMN PHUM PREL SA SCUL
SUBJECT: JEDDAH JOURNAL 10 - FEMALE MORAL POLICE, OIC-OSCE
MEETING, HONORARY MUSLIM, MORE ON WOMEN DRIVING, AND LITTLE
CHARITY FOR AILING DOMESTICS


Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller, for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

WOMEN MAY SOON BE PERMITTED TO GUIDE THE PEOPLE IN VIRTUE


1. (C) The Saudi Arabian Department for the Promotion of
Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Note: The employees of this
department are the mutawaa'in, the moral police who patrol
the Kingdom's cities and towns enforcing their idea of proper
Islamic behavior on the population. End Note.) has announced
that it is "considering" hiring women as "cooperative
members." The department and the Institute of Promotion of
Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Um Olqura University in Mecca,
are considering a special training program for women so that
they will be qualified to work for the department.

OIC SECRETARY GENERAL AND OSCE SECRETARY GENERAL AGREE ON
DIALOGUE


2. (U) In a press release dated March 25, the Organization
of the Islamic Conference (OIC) announced that Secretary
General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had met for the first time in
Jeddah with Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, Secretary
General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE). The two leaders discussed developments
following the "printing of the blasphemous, insulting and
provocative caricatures and the imperatives needed to
initiate various confidence-building measures between the
Muslim World and the West." The meeting concluded with an
agreement to "undertake joint activities focusing upon
tolerance, Islamophobia and an effective dialogue between the
West and the Muslim World."

HONORARY MUSLIM RESIDED IN MECCA


3. (C) It has become commonplace in recent years for female
diplomats and VIP visitors to be accorded the status of
honorary males, allowing them to enter places normally
prohibited to women. Pol/Econ Chief recently learned that

there have been instances in which Saudi concessions to
useful visitors have gone even farther. At a recent
reception at the CGR sponsored by the American Businessmen of
Jeddah (ABJ),Pol/Econ Chief spoke with an American citizen
who had resided in the Kingdom since 1979. The individual
claimed that even though he is not a Muslim, he had lived for
much of his first eight years in the Kingdom in the forbidden
city of Mecca. Involved in construction management during a
period of unprecedented growth, he confided that it suited
the government's purpose that he work in Mecca, so they
simply issued him an iqama that stated he was a Muslim and no
questions were ever raised.

PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN TO PREPARE PUBLIC FOR WOMEN DRIVERS


4. (U) It appears that efforts are underway to prepare the
public to accept women driving. In Al Watan newspaper on
March 31, an article appeared recounting a study by four
university professors in Riyadh stating that one of the major
causes of traffic accidents is the prohibition on women
driving. The conclusion of the report is that since women
are not allowed to drive, their children or underage family
members are compelled to drive. According to the report,
these drivers lack experience and judgment and cause many
accidents.


5. (U) It seems more than a coincidence that the April 4
edition of the Jeddah-based English-language "Arab News"
carried a story date-lined Jeddah stating that many Saudi
women drive in surrounding countries. In the story the
Director General of Traffic in Bahrain said that Bahrain had
issued 1,107 driving licenses to Saudi women. He went on to
relate that they were happy to have the Saudi women driving
on the island. "Despite the presence of a large number of
Saudi women drivers in Bahrain, not a single case of traffic
violation had been registered against them." In contrast to
this sterling record, he reported that in the last five
months, Saudi men drivers had been involved in 38 traffic
accidents, including two fatalities.


6. (U) This publicity campaign may already be bearing fruit.
The "Saudi Gazette" on the same day carried a short article

JEDDAH 00000274 002 OF 002


noting that Riyadh police had arrested a couple in a car,
because the woman was driving. The couple attracted the
attention of the police because the woman was also unveiled
and her long hair was visible.

DOMESTIC WORKER SEEKS MERCY WHERE SHE CAN


7. (C) During the recent National Day celebration at the
CGR, the wife of an American citizen couple described to
Pol/Econ Chief the complicated relationship between
expatriate domestic workers, the Saudi authorities, and their
former employers. She told of a former Asian domestic who
had left their service some years earlier to work for a Saudi
family. Recently the domestic had contacted the American
woman for help. She had developed pleurisy and had been
dismissed by her current employer. This had rendered her a
non-person to the authorities and she could not get a
hospital to admit her. The American felt morally bound to
assist the woman, and had spent several days helping the
woman to enter a hospital, communicate with her consulate and
arrange matters with the relevant Saudi authorities, who
simply ignored the unfortunate woman.


8. (C) The American and her husband, both Muslims, deplored
the treatment of domestics both by their Saudi employers, who
were all too likely to dismiss them when they proved a
liability, and the Saudi authorities, who callously ignore
foreign workers who become inconvenient. The American woman
observed that the servant was no longer their responsibility,
but they could not ignore her and let her die on the streets.
Consequently, as the couple prepared to leave the National
Day celebration at 10:00 P.M. they were going to stop at the
hospital to see to the woman's condition and the next day
would be spent at a foreign consulate and in Saudi agencies
to see what could be done for the ailing woman.
Gfoeller