Latest news with #DarAlReaya
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Shocking footage shows Saudi police beat women and girls inside secret prisons where families send 'disobedient' females to be locked away and punished for YEARS to break their spirit
Shocking footage obtained by MailOnline shows Saudi police beating women detained inside secretive facilities where families send 'disobedient' women and girls to be punished. Women seen in the clip were said to be staging a peaceful sit-in protest over poor living conditions at their so-called 'care home' in Khamis Mushair, in Asir Province. Security and police officers at the Social Education Home for Girls are seen rushing in and hitting the woman; some as they lay helpless on the ground. Women were seen being dragged by their hair, beaten with belts and sticks, and subjected to other forms of physical abuse. The video, which caused outrage among rights activists in Saudi Arabia when it first circulated in 2022, re-emerged as former detainees bravely spoke out about their experiences held in 'Dar al-Reaya' facilities across the country. Dr Maryam Aldossari, a Saudi academic at Royal Holloway, University of London, told MailOnline that despite recent reforms, many women remain held in these de facto prisons, unable to leave until a male guardian permits them. She cited examples of women enduring horrifying conditions inside the facilities, some reportedly even moved to take their own lives due to alleged abuse. 'It still exists,' she warned. 'We still know people who are there and God knows when they will leave. 'They completely cut them [off]. There are cameras everywhere. If you misbehave you must go to these small individual rooms, you are separated. 'Anything can be considered as a violation of women's rights.' Dr Aldossari, who left Saudi Arabia in 2008 to study and work in the UK, today works with Al Qst (ALQST), a human rights organisation that documents and promotes human rights in Saudi Arabia. 'What we do hear - it's such a dark time in Saudi Arabia. This is becoming a police state,' she said. 'People are scared.' After the harrowing video first emerged, the local authority said it was ordering an investigation into the incident. It did not condemn the security officers for the 'blatant and brutal assault on the women', Al Qst noted, assessing that any investigation would 'lack all credibility'. They described violence at the hands of the authorities as a 'hallmark' of the Saudi prison system. 'In this respect, care homes for young women and girls (even if not officially for female criminals) and juvenile detention centres are no different from prisons, where violence mostly takes the form of ill-treatment, physical assaults and sexual harassment.' A spokesperson for the Saudi government recently denied that the care homes were detention centres, claiming 'women are free to leave at any time' and can leave without permission from a guardian or family member. They also said that 'any allegation of abuse is taken seriously and subject to thorough investigation'. Dr Aldossari dismissed the claims. 'The regime lie and lie and lie and lie,' she said. She maintained that women as young as 13 could be sent to a facility for 'disobedience' and held until a male guardian allows them to leave. Despite recent reforms nominally strengthening women's rights, she said, there is no 'trial' to be sent to a facility that is not officially a prison, there is no process of appeal, and there is no consistent interpretation of the law. 'A woman might be legally allowed to apply for her own passport because of the reforms,' she explained, referring to the Saudi Personal Status Law (PSL), codified in 2022 and supplemented this year. 'But her male guardian can still prevent her from travelling by filing a case of disobedience - and they didn't even bother to define what disobedience means,' she said. 'So anyone and every male says "my wife or my daughter" is being disobedient and then all those rights will go.' 'It [has become] like a tool of the Saudi regime to control women,' she added. 'The reason could be anything. You could, for example, run away from your home because you are facing abuse, then you will be arrested by police. 'It could be the accusation of behaviour that doesn't align with norms. For example, being seen with a man who's not your husband. It could be because your family thought you're out of control or even being a feminist.' The care homes have existed since the 1960s, initially presented as a rehabilitative 'shelter' for women accused or convicted of certain crimes. They are said to hold women between the ages of 7 and 30. A Saudi government spokesperson told The Guardian: '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.' But campaigners contest the claims, citing women who have experienced the facilities first-hand. If a male guardian is not willing or available to release them, the authorities will move them to a similar 'guest' facility - from which they will also require the consent of a male guardian or relative to leave. Dr Aldossari explained that under the 'ridiculous' system in Saudi Arabia, this role is 'inherited'. If a woman's husband or father is unavailable, her son could end up responsible for his mother. In some horrifying cases, women have allegedly been sent to facilities after defying the men sexually abusing them at home. 'She ends up in the situation that the abuser has to release her,' she said. Women have shared harrowing testimonies of being sent to the facilities as punishment for not 'obeying' sexual abuse at home, and then flogged or locked away in isolation until they 'reconcile' with their abusers. Sarah Al-Yahia, campaigning to abolish the homes, told the Guardian that her father had threatened to send her to one of the homes as a child 'if I didn't obey his sexual abuse'. 'If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father you are the one sent to Dar al-Re'aya to protect the family's reputation,' she explained. Women may have to make the impossible choice between enduring abuse at home and the gruelling conditions inside the camps, she explained. Some have reportedly been killed by abusive relatives soon after release. One woman told the Guardian that she was taken to Dar al-Re'aya after complaining about her father and brothers. She was then allegedly abused at the institution and accused of bringing shame upon her family for her social media posts about women's rights. She was held until her father agreed she could be released, despite his being her alleged abuser, the outlet reports. While testimonies from the facilities remain underreported, some women have bravely spoken out over the years. In a 2021 ALQST report, women described being made to stand for six hours at a time by way of punishment for disobedience. One former inmate told MBC in 2018 that she and others were made to eat their own vomit after throwing up bad food. 'They let men in to hit us. Sometimes the girls and kids face sexual harassment, but if they talk, no one listens.' In other cases, local media has documented reports of suicide at the centres, blamed on the conditions inside. In 2015, a woman was found to have hanged herself from the ceiling of her room at one of the shelters, writing in a note: 'I decided to die to escape hell.' An inmate at the Makkah facility had said earlier: 'Dying is more merciful than living in the shelter.'
The Sun
4 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
Inside Saudi Arabia's ‘hellish' secret prisons for women banished by their cruel husbands to be flogged into ‘obedience'
"HELLISH" Saudi prisons are housing banished wives in nightmare conditions and subjecting them to floggings so they can be taught "obedience". Several women inmates at the grim jailhouses spoke out about being sent to punishment facilities for "not obeying" sexual abuse at home. 3 3 3 They are reportedly locked away in isolation cells until they "reconcile" with their cruel abusers. Other harrowing details of the prisons' conditions continue to plague its dreaded reputation. Documented cases show evidence of abuse and neglect, malnutrition, poor health and hygiene, and mistreatment and brutality, according to rights group ALQST. They also accused Dar al-Re'aya prisons of excessive use of solitary confinement and denigration of their inmates. Several cases of suicide attempts in recent years have also been reported The name of the jails, Dar al-Re'aya, literally translates to "care homes". A campaigner fighting to abolish the brutal homes, Sarah Al-Yahia, told the Guardian that her dad threatened to send her to one of the facilities as a child "if I didn't obey his sexual abuse". She bravely explained: "If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father you are the one sent to Dar al-Re'aya to protect the family's reputation." She added that often women are put between the impossible choice of enduring horrific abuse at home or living in gruelling conditions inside the camp. The care homes have existed since the 1960s and were initially presented as a rehabilitative "shelter" for women accused or convicted of certain crimes. Inside the hellish prison dubbed 'Indonesia's Alcatraz' which executes death row inmates with a firing squad The infamous cells house women between the ages of just seven years old and 30. But women's rights groups today warn that the notorious prisons serve mainly as detention facilities for young girls and women. And these female inmates are accused of having "become delinquent or have been accused by their male guardians of disobedience". Another Saudi women who fled into exile said that these jails are well-known across the country. She said: "It's like hell. "I tried to end my life when I found out I was going to be taken to one. She added: "I knew what happened to women there and thought 'I can't survive it.'' The 38-year-old said that inmates are subject to strip searches and even virginity tests on arrival. They are also given sedatives to put them to sleep. Inmates are also addressed by numbers, not names, the exile woman said. Women's Aid Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families: Always keep your phone nearby. Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women's Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine. If you are in danger, call 999. Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing '55'. Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare. If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone. Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space. If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity's email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@ Women's Aid provides a live chat service - available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm. You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247. She recalled that one woman was lashed for shared her family name instead of her number. "If she doesn't pray, she gets lashes. If she is found alone with another woman she gets lashes and is accused of being a lesbian," she explained. "The guards gather and watch when the girls are being lashed." Chilling footage also showed the moment a female inmate appeared to try and escape the hellish cells. They desperately climbed up onto the roof in order to get out of the prisons. In 2015, a woman was found to have hanged herself from the ceiling of her room at one of the Dar al-Re'aya prisons. She left behind a written note saying: "I decided to die to escape hell." A staff member at another shelter was quoted as having said that children suffer the worst kind of psychological and physical torture. According to Arab News, they said: "With my own eyes I saw a worker beating on a child not more than 13 years of age." Women have also reportedly been killed shortly after their release. One woman also told the Guardian that she was taken to Dar al-Re'aya after complaining about her dads and brothers. She was then allegedly abused at the prison and accused of bringing shame upon her family for her social media posts touting women's rights. She was held in the institution until her dad agreed she could be released - despite him being the alleged abuser. Girls and women can only be released from Dar al-Re'aya into the custody of a male relative, ALQST reported. Women have previously been described being made to stand for six hours in one sitting as a punishment for disobedience. Data is rarely released about the facilities. In 2016, there were reportedly 233 girls and women held in seven facilities across the Arab kingdom.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Inside Saudi Arabia's 'hellish' secret prisons for 'disobedient' women and girls where inmates are sent by families to be flogged and abused until they become docile... or jump off the roof to end it all
Saudi women have bravely spoken out on the 'hellish' conditions inside the country's prisons for 'disobedient' women, where inmates are sent by family members to be 'rehabilitated' through an alleged violent campaign of flogging, isolation and abuse. Sarah Al-Yahia, campaigning to abolish the homes, told the Guardian that her father had threatened to send her to a Dar al-Re'aya - literally 'care homes' - facility as a child 'if I didn't obey his sexual abuse'. 'If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father you are the one sent to Dar al-Reaya to protect the family's reputation,' she said. Women may have to make the impossible choice between abuse at home and the gruelling conditions inside the camps, she explained. Inside the facilities, they may be punished with solitary confinement and floggings unless they 'reconcile' with their abusers, the human rights group ALQST reported. Within the facilities, the organisation has documented wider cases of abuse and neglect; malnutrition; poor health and hygiene; mistreatment and brutality; excessive use of solitary confinement; and denigration. Several cases of suicide or attempted suicide have been reported in recent years. The care homes have existed since the 1960s, initially presented as a rehabilitative 'shelter' for women accused or convicted of certain crimes. They hold women between the ages of 7 and 30. But today, rights groups warn they serve primarily as detention facilities for young women and girls who have 'become delinquent or have been accused by their male guardians of disobedience'. One young Saudi woman who fled into exile told the Guardian that the institutions are well known among women in the country. 'It's like hell,' she said. '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.'' Sarah, now 38, said inmates have described being subjected to strip searches and virginity tests on arrival at the facilities, and given sedatives to put them to sleep. She told the newspaper that women are addressed by numbers, not their names, and recalled one woman having received lashes for sharing their family name. 'If she doesn't pray, she gets lashes. If she is found alone with another woman she gets lashes and is accused of being a lesbian. 'The guards gather and watch when the girls are being lashed.' Harrowing video footage shows women climbing onto the roofs of facilities, trying to escape. In 2015, a woman was found to have hanged herself from the ceiling of her room at one of the shelters, writing in a note: 'I decided to die to escape hell.' An inmate at the Makkah facility had said earlier: 'Dying is more merciful than living in the shelter. 'Food, which is supposed to be the easiest thing to get, does not come easily.' One former inmate told MBC in 2018 that she and others were made to eat their own vomit after throwing up bad food. 'They let men in to hit us. Sometimes the girls and kids face sexual harassment, but if they talk, no one listens.' A worker at another shelter was quoted as having said that children suffer the worst kind of psychological and physical torture. 'With my own eyes I saw a worker beating on a child not more than 13 years of age,' they said, reported by Arab News at the time. While the kingdom publicly celebrates women's empowerment, and chairs the UN's gender equality body, ALQST warns that women's rights supporters are systematically punished for their views, allowed out only when a man permits them. Women have then reportedly been killed by abusive relatives soon after release. One woman told the Guardian that she was taken to Dar al-Re'aya - literally 'care homes' - after complaining about her father and brothers. She was then allegedly abused at the institution and accused of bringing shame upon her family for her social media posts about women's rights. She was held in the institution until her father agreed she could be released, despite his being her alleged abuser, the outlet reports. Girls and women can only be released from Dar al-Re'aya into the custody of a male relative, ALQST reports. If one is not willing or available, the authorities will move them to a similar 'guest' facility - from which they will also require a male guardian or relative. Women who reach the age of 30 while still in Dar al-Re'aya are also transferred to a 'guest' facility, or Dar al-Theyafa. Women fleeing abuse can essentially be left to spend their lives inside the camps, or face returning to abusive households. They may never leave. Conditions have scarcely changed in recent years, despite the kingdom's efforts to welcome in Western visitors and appear more liberal. In a 2021 ALQST report, women described being made to stand for six hours at a time by way of punishment for disobedience. Women are said to be encouraged to reconcile with abusers, and resistance is met with harsh punishments including 'regular floggings and solitary confinement' until they concede. In 2019, former inmate Kholoud Bariedah recounted her experience inside the prisons to Business Insider. She said she was sent to the centre aged 19 after being sentenced in 2006 to 2,000 lashes with a whip and four years of detention for drinking alcohol at a party with single men she was not related to. 'Girls held in isolated rooms start to go weird and hurt themselves — they destroy the lamps or, in another isolated room, a window, they smash glass and they start to hurt themselves' with the shards, she told the outlet. Having since fled to Germany, she told Insider: 'I knew that if I said any word about it in Saudi, I will go back to prison.' Data is not often released on the facilities. In 2016, there were 233 girls and women held in seven facilities across the kingdom. Officials announced in 2018 plans to rent five more spaces to allow for more detentions, in part to account for women breaking traffic laws after they were legally allowed to drive.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Revealed: Saudi Arabia's secretive rehabilitation ‘prisons' for disobedient women
A young woman wearing a black abaya is pictured in a city in north-west Saudi Arabia standing precariously on a second-floor window ledge. A second photograph shows a group of men escorting her down with the help of a crane. The woman's identity is unknown, but she was allegedly being held at one of Saudi Arabia's notoriously secretive 'jails' for women banished by their families or husbands for disobedience, extramarital sexual relations or being absent from home. It was a rare glimpse of the plight of hundreds or more girls and young women believed to be held in such facilities, where they are 'rehabilitated' so they can return to their families. Speaking out in public or sharing footage of these 'care homes', or Dar al-Reaya, has become impossible in a country where voices on women's rights appear to have been silenced. But over the past six months, the Guardian has gathered testimony about what it is like inside these institutions, described as 'hellish', with weekly floggings, forced religious teachings and no visits or contact with the outside world. Conditions are reported to be so bad that there have been several cases of suicide or attempted suicide. The women can spend years locked up, unable to leave without the permission of their family or a male 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',' says one young Saudi woman who later managed to flee into exile. Maryam Aldossari, a Saudi activist based in London, says: 'A young girl or woman will stay in there for as long as it takes for her to accept the rules.' While Saudi Arabia celebrates being awarded the Fifa men's World Cup and meticulously promotes itself on the global stage as reformed, women who have dared to publicly call for more rights and freedoms have faced house arrest, jail and exile. Activists say the the country's care homes are one of the regime's lesser-known tools for controlling and punishing women, and want them to be abolished. Saudi officials have described the care homes, which were set up across the country in the 1960s, as providing 'shelter for girls accused or convicted of various crimes' and say they are used to 'rehabilitate the female inmates' with the help of psychiatrists 'in order to return them to their family'. But Sarah Al-Yahia, who started a campaign to abolish the care homes, has spoken to a number of girls who describe an abusive regime, with inmates subjected to strip-searches and virginity tests on arrival and given sedatives to put them to sleep. 'It is a prison, not a care home, as they like to call it. They call each other by numbers. 'Number 35, come here.' When one of the girls shared her family name, she got lashes. If she doesn't pray, she gets lashes. If she is found alone with another woman she gets lashes and is accused of being a lesbian. The guards gather and watch when the girls are being lashed.' Yahia, who is now 38 and lives in exile, says her parents had threatened to send her to Dar al-Reaya since she was 13. 'My father used it as a threat if I didn't obey his sexual abuse,' she says, adding that girls and women may face the horrifying dilemma of deciding between Dar al-Reaya and staying in an abusive home. 'They make it impossible for others to help women fleeing abuse. I know a woman who was sentenced to six months in jail because she helped a victim of violence. Giving shelter in the case of a woman charged for 'absenteeism' is a crime in Saudi Arabia. 'If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father you are the one sent to Dar al-Reaya to protect the family's reputation,' she says. Amina*, 25, says she sought refuge in a 'care home' in Buraydah, a city in central Saudi Arabia, after being beaten by her father. She says the building was 'old, crumbling and unsettling' and the staff 'cold and unhelpful'. They belittled her experience, says Amina, telling her other girls had it 'far worse' and were 'chained at home' and told her to 'thank God my situation wasn't that bad'. The next day, staff summoned her father, says Amina, but did little to protect her. 'They asked both of us to write down our 'conditions'. I requested not to be beaten or forced into marriage, and to be allowed to work. My father demanded that I respect everyone, never leave the house without permission, and always be accompanied by a male escort. I signed out of fear – I didn't feel I had a choice.' Once she returned home, Amina says the beatings continued and in the end she was forced to flee into exile. 'I remember being utterly alone and terrified. I felt like a prisoner in my own home, with no one to protect me, no one to defend me. It felt like my life didn't matter, like even if something terrible happened to me, no one would care,' she says. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion For young girls, learning to fear Dar al-Reaya starts from a young age. Shams* says she was 16 when a woman who had been in one of the care homes was brought to her school. She told the class that she had started a relationship with a boy and was caught by the religious police and made to confess to her father. After she became pregnant her family disowned her and the father refused to allow her to marry, so she was sent to Dar al-Reaya. 'She told us, if a woman has sex or a relationship she becomes a 'cheap woman'. If you are a man you will always be a man, but if a woman makes herself cheap, she will be cheap for life.' Layla*, who still lives in the country, says she was taken to Dar al-Reaya after complaining to the police about her father and brothers. She says they abused her and then accused her of bringing shame on her family after she posted on social media about women's rights. She remained in the care home until her father agreed for her to be released, even though he was her alleged abuser. 'These women have no one. They could be abandoned for years, even without committing a crime,' says a Saudi women's rights activist who wishes to remain anonymous. 'The only way out is through a male guardian, marriage or jumping off the building. Old men or former convicts who did not find a bride would look for a bride in these institutions. Some women would accept this as the only way out.' Some Saudi men will say a woman deserves to be there or that they should be thankful that the government provides facilities to protect them, says Fawzia al-Otaibi, an activist forced to flee the country in 2022. 'No one dares tweet or speak about these places. No one will ask about you when you go there. They make the victims feel ashamed,' Otaibi says. Activists say that if the Saudi regime were serious about women's rights they would reform the care home system and provide proper safe shelters for victims of abuse. 'There are women who have good families who do not abuse or hide them,' says a Saudi activist now living in exile. 'But many live under strict restrictions and suffer abuse silently. The state supports this abuse with these institutions. They only exist to discriminate against women. Why are the Saudi authorities allowing them to stay open?' The human rights group ALQST says Dar al-Reaya facilities are notorious within Saudi Arabia as state tools for enforcing gender norms and 'stand in stark contrast to the Saudi authorities' narrative of women's empowerment'. Campaigns officer, Nadyeen Abdulaziz, says: 'If they are serious about advancing women's rights, they must abolish these discriminatory practices and allow the establishment of genuine shelters that protect, rather than punish, those who have experienced abuse.' A Saudi government spokesperson said there was a network of specialised care facilities that supported vulnerable groups, including women and children affected by domestic violence. It categorically rejected claims of enforced confinement, mistreatment, or coercion. '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.' It also said that reports of domestic violence were received through a dedicated and confidential hotline, and that all cases were addressed swiftly to ensure the safety of those affected.* Names have been changed
