Saudi police want cameras to catch immorality

Saudi Arabia's religious police caused a stir this week after they told a parliament session they planned to install cameras in shopping malls to monitor and catch people committing what they labeled as "indecent behavior."

Members of Saudi's Shura Council, or Consultative Assembly, urged the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or religious police, to reconsider its decision, which they slammed as an invasion of privacy.

"Installing these cameras is an invasion of privacy and is most likely to cause many problems," said Member of Parliament Abdul-Rahman al-Anad.

"What if I meet my sister in the mall and I want to greet her? Isn't this an invasion of privacy?" MP Zain al-Abdeen Barry said.

Barry said he was concerned watching activities on cameras left things up to anyones interpretation and said officers would most likely come up with conclusions based on their own personal perspective.

Installing these cameras is an invasion of privacy and is most likely to cause many problems

Saudi MP

Mall request

But the religious police defended their suggestion, which they said they were asked to do by the mall administrators.

"Firstly the decision is still open for discussion," Abdul-Mohsen al-Qafari, a spokesman for the religious police, said, adding "mall security officers will be in charge of surveillance and only in case violations or suspicious behavior would they contact the committee."

The committee's deputy chief, Ibrahim bin Suleiman al-Howaimel, denied press reports that the Shura Council had rejected the decision and said only some members had reservations.

Howaimel added that so far surveillance cameras have been a success in several malls in the capital of Riyadh and the holy city of Mecca, where cameras were installed two years ago.

"The decision aims at making the committee do its job as it is supposed to be by monitoring people's behavior. This is for the benefit of everyone," he added.

The committee has field officers all over the kingdom and their job is to make sure that unrelated men and women do not mingle and that stores close during prayer times. They also cooperate with the police to combat the use of alcohol and drugs.



(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)

The decision aims at making the committee do its job as it is supposed to be by monitoring people's behavior. This is for the benefit of everyone

Committee chief