Womens' desperate escape bids from Saudi Arabia 'secret rehabilitation prisons'
Women without prospect of leaving have mounted desperate bids to escape from Dar al-Reaya 'care homes' after allegedly being subject to abusive 'hell' conditions
Saudi Arabian women have claimed the country has secret women's prisons that are so "hellish" inmates launch desperate attempts to escape - even at the cost of their own lives.
The Middle Eastern nation is famous for its poor record on human rights, having been ranked near-bottom on detailed lists exploring global gender equality. In 2024, the World Economic Forum 's Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 126 out of 146 countries, with advocacy groups finding they face massive discrimination at home and work. But the problem is much worse than it appears, Saudi nationals have said, as they claim women are sent to prisons for "disobedient" women whose families decide they need rehabilitation.
Campaigners speaking to The Guardian have shared harrowing stories of being sent to secure facilities as a punishment for allegedly refusing to "obey" sexual abuse at home.
They have claimed they were sent away and then subject to a campaign of flogging, isolation and abuse in a twisted attempt at "rehabilitation" until they "reconcile" with their abusers. Human rights campaigners from ALQST have documented alleged cases of abuse and neglect.
The group states it has uncovered wider abuse and neglect, including malnutrition, poor health and hygiene, mistreatment, brutality, denigration and excessive use of solitary confinement at the prisons, known as "care homes" or Dar al-Reaya.
Campaigners say they have struggled to speak out about them in their home country, but those who have spoken up claim the conditions are so poor that women have committed or attempted suicide in a desperate bid to escape. In 2017, video footage posted online purportedly showed women trying to jump from the roof of one centre in Mecca.
Other inmates - who are unable to leave until they secure permission from their family or a male guardian - have said the arrangement is "like hell".
One young Saudi woman told The Guardian: "Every girl growing up in Saudi knows about Dar al-Reaya and how awful it is. It's like hell. I tried to end my life when I found out I was going to be taken to one. I knew what happened to women there and thought 'I can't survive it'."
London-based Saudi activist Maryam Aldossari, said women are forced to stay in the hellish prisons until they "accept the rules". She said: "A young girl or woman will stay in there for as long as it takes for her to accept the rules."
Women have said they learn about the prisons - which were set up in the 1960s - usually during their early to mid-teens, and that they keep them locked in cycles of vicious abuse. Saudi Arabian officials claim they are used as a "shelter for girls accused or convicted of various crimes" and add that they "rehabilitate the female inmates" with help from psychiatrists.
A spokesperson for the Saudi government said the country runs specialist care facilities to support vulnerable groups, including women and children trying to escape domestic violence.
The government "categorically rejected claims of enforced confinement, mistreatment, or coercion". The spokesperson said: "These are not detention centres, and any allegation of abuse is taken seriously and subject to thorough investigation…Women are free to leave at any time, whether to attend school, work, or other personal activities, and may exit permanently whenever they choose with no need of approval from a guardian or family member."
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Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Womens' desperate escape bids from Saudi Arabia 'secret rehabilitation prisons'
Women without prospect of leaving have mounted desperate bids to escape from Dar al-Reaya 'care homes' after allegedly being subject to abusive 'hell' conditions Saudi Arabian women have claimed the country has secret women's prisons that are so "hellish" inmates launch desperate attempts to escape - even at the cost of their own lives. The Middle Eastern nation is famous for its poor record on human rights, having been ranked near-bottom on detailed lists exploring global gender equality. In 2024, the World Economic Forum 's Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 126 out of 146 countries, with advocacy groups finding they face massive discrimination at home and work. But the problem is much worse than it appears, Saudi nationals have said, as they claim women are sent to prisons for "disobedient" women whose families decide they need rehabilitation. Campaigners speaking to The Guardian have shared harrowing stories of being sent to secure facilities as a punishment for allegedly refusing to "obey" sexual abuse at home. They have claimed they were sent away and then subject to a campaign of flogging, isolation and abuse in a twisted attempt at "rehabilitation" until they "reconcile" with their abusers. Human rights campaigners from ALQST have documented alleged cases of abuse and neglect. The group states it has uncovered wider abuse and neglect, including malnutrition, poor health and hygiene, mistreatment, brutality, denigration and excessive use of solitary confinement at the prisons, known as "care homes" or Dar al-Reaya. Campaigners say they have struggled to speak out about them in their home country, but those who have spoken up claim the conditions are so poor that women have committed or attempted suicide in a desperate bid to escape. In 2017, video footage posted online purportedly showed women trying to jump from the roof of one centre in Mecca. Other inmates - who are unable to leave until they secure permission from their family or a male guardian - have said the arrangement is "like hell". One young Saudi woman told The Guardian: "Every girl growing up in Saudi knows about Dar al-Reaya and how awful it is. It's like hell. I tried to end my life when I found out I was going to be taken to one. I knew what happened to women there and thought 'I can't survive it'." London-based Saudi activist Maryam Aldossari, said women are forced to stay in the hellish prisons until they "accept the rules". She said: "A young girl or woman will stay in there for as long as it takes for her to accept the rules." Women have said they learn about the prisons - which were set up in the 1960s - usually during their early to mid-teens, and that they keep them locked in cycles of vicious abuse. Saudi Arabian officials claim they are used as a "shelter for girls accused or convicted of various crimes" and add that they "rehabilitate the female inmates" with help from psychiatrists. A spokesperson for the Saudi government said the country runs specialist care facilities to support vulnerable groups, including women and children trying to escape domestic violence. The government "categorically rejected claims of enforced confinement, mistreatment, or coercion". The spokesperson said: "These are not detention centres, and any allegation of abuse is taken seriously and subject to thorough investigation…Women are free to leave at any time, whether to attend school, work, or other personal activities, and may exit permanently whenever they choose with no need of approval from a guardian or family member."
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
A journalist was killed while writing a book on the Amazon. Here's how friends completed his work
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Phillips, who had been a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper, was taking one of the final reporting trips planned for his book when he was gunned down by fishermen on June 5, 2022, in western Amazon's Javari Valley. Also killed was Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on Indigenous tribes who had made enemies in the region for defending the local communities from intruding fishermen, poachers and illegal gold miners. Their deaths made headlines around the world. Nine people have been indicted in the killings. 'It was just a horrifying, really sad moment. Everybody was trying to think: How can you deal with something like this? And the book was there,' said Jonathan Watts, an Amazon-based environmental writer for The Guardian who coauthored the foreword and one of the chapters. Under the leadership of Phillips' widow, Alessandra Sampaio, a group of five friends agreed to carry the project forward. Along with Watts, the core group also included Andrew Fishman, the Rio-based president of The Intercept Brasil; Phillips' agent, Rebecca Carter; David Davies, a colleague from his days in London as a music journalist; and Tom Hennigan, Latin America correspondent for The Irish Times. 'It was a way to not just feel awful about what had happened, but to get on with something. Especially because so many of Dom's friends are journalists,' Watts said. 'And what you fall back on is what you know best, which is journalism.' Unfinished work researching rainforest solutions By the time of his death, Phillips had traveled extensively across the Amazon and had completed an introduction and nearly four of the 10 planned chapters. He also left behind an outline of the remaining chapters, with different degrees of detail, and many pages of handwritten notes, some of them barely legible. 'I think it's fair to say even Dom didn't yet know what he would do exactly in those chapters,' Watts said. Phillips was searching for hope. He promised his editors a character-driven travel book in which readers would get to know a wide-ranging cast of people living in the area, 'all of whom know and understand the Amazon intimately and have innovative solutions for the millions of people who live there.' The group led by Sampaio selected writers for the remaining chapters, with subjects ranging from a bioeconomy initiative in Brazil's Acre state to global funding for rainforest preservation. Indigenous leader Beto Marubo of the Javari Valley was recruited to co-write an afterword. The team also launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to pay for more reporting trips. Among the group's challenges was ensuring that the book reflected a political shift in Brazil's approach to the Amazon in the years since Phillips' death. Most of Phillips' research was done during the term of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, as Brazil's Amazon deforestation reached a 15-year high in 2021. The pace of destruction slowed after Bolsonaro's 2022 defeat by leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Fragments of hope, grim statistics Throughout the finished book's more than 300 pages, fragments of hope mix with grim realities. In Chapter 2, 'Cattle Chaos,' Phillips notes that 16% of Brazil's Amazon has already been converted to pasture. Even a farmer who has become a model for successfully increasing productivity without clearing most of his land is criticized for his widespread use of fertilizers. In his chapter on bioeconomy, journalist Jon Lee Anderson visits a reforestation initiative where Benki Piyãko, an Ashaninka leader, promotes environmental restoration coupled with ayahuasca treatment and a fish farm. But the veteran reporter doesn't see how it can be scalable and reproducible given man-made threats and climate change. Later in the chapter, he quotes Marek Hanusch, a German economist for the World Bank, as saying: 'At the end of the day, deforestation is a macroeconomic choice, and so long as Brazil's growth model is based on agriculture, you're going to see expansion into the Amazon.' In the foreword, the group of five organizers state that 'Like Dom, none of us was under any illusion that our writing would save the Amazon, but we could certainly follow his lead in asking the people who might know.' But in this book stained by blood and dim hope, there is another message, according to Watts: 'The most important thing is that this is all about solidarity with our friend and with journalism in general.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
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Farmer's gruesome last moments as pet hippo 'like his son' mauled him to death
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