JEDDAH JOURNAL 12: BINLADEN GROUP ARRANGES HASTY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000378 SIPDIS SIPDIS RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP; LONDON FOR TSOU; PARIS FOR ZEYA E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2016 TAGS: ELAB KISL KJUS KWMN PGOV PHUM SA SMIG SOCI SUBJECT: JEDDAH JOURNAL 12: BINLADEN GROUP ARRANGES HASTY CONVERSIONS, WOMEN SET TO WORK AS LAWYERS AND LINGERIE SALESPERSONS, SAUDI TRIBUNAL OVERRULES MINISTRY, MYSTERIOUS CORPSES CONTINUE TO PILE UP REF: JEDDAH 274 Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) BINLADEN GROUP ARRANGES EXPEDITIOUS CONVERSIONS FOR WESTERNERS WORKING IN HOLY CITIES ¶1. (C) The Saudi construction giant the Binladen Group recently dispatched three Dutch engineers, two Christians and an atheist, to Cairo for expeditious conversion to Islam. According to a Consulate contact who works for the Group, the engineers were urgently needed to work on the Jabal Omar project, a huge construction project overlooking the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Non-Muslims are forbidden to enter the city, and the three engineers are required to show a certificate stating they are Muslim in order to go to the project site. The engineers traveled to Egypt because the procedures for converting to Islam there, a one-day process consisting of the recitation of the two holy testaments (the "shahadateen") before a sheikh and two witnesses at al-Azhar mosque, are less onerous than in Saudi Arabia. Conversion in Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, requires a thorough investigation to confirm one's study of Islam and the Quran, which can take several months. The Binladen Group has reportedly arranged similar conversions before, since being awarded the contract to expand the Grand Mosque in the early 1980s. According to the source, the company retains agents in Cairo to facilitate the conversion of non-Muslim experts when needed for projects in Mecca and Medina. Other sources have said the Saudi government has furnished non-Muslims with iqamas (residency permits) stating that the holder is Muslim when it was expedient to do so (reftel). AL-WATAN: MINISTRY OF JUSTICE TO ESTABLISH BAR ASSOCIATION AND GRANT LICENSES TO FEMALE LAWYERS ¶2. (U) On May 4, the newspaper al-Watan reported that the Ministry of Justice is planning to issue new regulations for the legal profession. The regulations will establish a bar association, the Saudi Lawyers Association, which will participate in setting qualifications for the practice of the law in Saudi Arabia and organize legal training programs for Saudi lawyers. ¶3. (C) In addition, the regulations reportedly will, for the first time, permit women to practice law in the Kingdom. Saudi newspapers have reported that women will be permitted to practice law on a number of occasions in the past two years, but the Ministry has always publicly denied such reports. The Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied this recent al-Watan report. One Consulate contact in the Ministry's Jeddah office, Tarek al-Ali, denied any knowledge of the new regulations, though, and said no official statement has been issued by the Ministry in Riyadh. ¶4. (C) The Ministry has been considering reform of the legal profession for the past three years in response to developments such as Saudi Arabia's accession to the World Trade Organization, and Ministry studies suggest the Kingdom will need 11,000 new lawyers in the coming five years. Al-Ali noted that several local universities have established law departments for women, which will graduate 175 female legal specialists annually in two years' time. However, Mais Abu Dalbouh, a female lawyer who has worked as an unlicensed consultant in the A.Z. Yamani Law Office for the past three years, and has unsuccessfully applied for a law license every year, said she is not holding her breath. She added, though, that if this recent report turns out to be untrue, she may move to Bahrain in order to be able to practice her profession freely. MEANWHILE, MINISTRY OF LABOR ANNOUNCES RULES FOR EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN LINGERIE SHOPS ¶5. (U) Saudi cultural mores--in this case, a general prohibition against mixing between men and women, particularly in the workplace--have resulted in a glaring anomaly: lingerie shops staffed entirely by men. According to the newspaper Okaz, the Ministry of Labor has issued new JEDDAH 00000378 002 OF 002 regulations to fix the problem. Lingerie shops will be permitted to employ women, provided the female employee's guardian has authorized her to work, the shop maintains strict segregation of the sexes, the shop is set up in such a way as to prevent passersby from catching a glimpse of female employees and shoppers, and the employee's duties are suitable in light of her feminine nature. Moreover, the employee's work must not hinder her performance of her domestic duties, nor cause her any social or moral damage. She must work with decency and integrity by, among other things, wearing the hijab. The regulations are set to go into effect on June 19, though a source told the CG their implementation will be delayed by a month because businesses have appealed for more time to replace their foreign staff. SAUDI TRIBUNAL OVERTURNS MINISTRY OF COMMERCE DECISION ¶6. (U) The Diwan al-Mazalim (Board of Grievances),an appellate tribunal outside the sharia system established in the 1950s to adjudicate commercial disputes, has for the first time in its history overturned a decision of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The case began three years ago, when elections for chairman of the Taif Chamber of Commerce and Industry ended in a draw between two candidates, Ahmed al-Amoudy and Abdullah al-Qadi. The Ministry stepped into the fray and demanded that the two settle the election between themselves. When the two could not agree on which one of them would become chairman, the Ministry stepped in again and appointed a third man, Naif al-Odwani, to be chairman. In late April, the Diwan voided the Ministry's appointment, ordered new elections, and fined the Ministry 20,000 Saudi riyals (approximately $5,300). DECOMPOSED BODIES CONTINUING TO PILE UP IN DESERT OUTSIDE RENYA ¶7. (U) The number of corpses found in al-Hamman desert west of Renya, about 350 kilometers south of Taif, has risen to 36. Since the decomposed bodies began turning up several months ago, Saudi authorities have consistently stated that the dead were illegal immigrants who died of hunger or thirst while crossing into the Kingdom through the remote desert to avoid detection. An official Interior Ministry investigation in March concluded the same. According to reports, though, the locals suspect foul play. The bodies have been found in close proximity to one another, with their faces covered and tire tracks nearby, indicating they may have been dumped in the desert. Gfoeller