Saudi religious police arrest Filipina nurse, male colleague

Arab News
Posted date: May 01, 2008

RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia’s religious police have arrested a Filipina nurse for sitting in a restaurant with a male colleague, a Philippine diplomat said.

Abigail Valdez, a nurse who works at the Riyadh Military Hospital, is being held at Al-Malaz Prison on charges of “immorality,” Philippine Ambassador Antonio P. Villamor told Arab News.

Villamor said the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh was trying to gain access to Valdez, who was arrested by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on Monday evening for being with an unrelated man, a taboo in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom.

But Vice Consul Gerardo P. Abiog, who is in charge of the embassy’s Assistance to Nationals Section, said Filipino embassy officials who went to see Valdez were denied access by Saudi authorities.

“She would be released if the hospital (where she works) intervenes. She’s still in jail,” said Abiog, adding that prison authorities said they needed the approval of senior authorities.

“In the past, Riyadh Military Hospital has not intervened in such a case, saying the legal system should prevail,” he said. “I don’t think she has been allowed contact with anyone. Even we at the embassy are having difficulty trying to see and talk to her.”

The embassy official said that in such cases, it first investigates the incident and then tries talking to the person’s employer to get them bail out the individual. “However, we cannot force the employer if they do not want to act,” Abiog said.

Unrelated men and women caught dining at a Saudi restaurant would normally be sentenced to four months in jail and 100 lashes. The same punishment applies to a man and a woman caught in a state of seclusion (khulwa).

Women in Saudi Arabia, which applies a rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism, face a host of constraints, including a ban on driving. They are forced to cover from head to toe in public, and cannot mix with men other than relatives or travel without written permission from their male guardian.

Valdez’s male colleague, who is of a Western nationality, was released several hours after being taken to a commission center and then to a police station. The man, who asked his name not be published, had his feet shackled when he resisted arrest.

“I am not going to play stupid here,” he told Arab News when asked about his knowledge of the Kingdom’s rules.

“Every country in the world allows access to a legal representative once arresting procedures take place. Here you can get arrested and thrown into jail without anyone knowing,” he said.

He added that with shackles on his feet the commission members forced him out of the restaurant by his belt and into a vehicle, without being shown any identity or an opportunity to contact a lawyer.

“At one point, I even told other Westerners in the restaurant whether they could believe what was happening to me as I was in shackles, but none of them cared to even look me in the eye,” he added.

The man said he was separated from the Filipino nurse once they reached the commission’s center. “She sent me a text message from her phone saying she was being taken to Al-Malaz Prison and that she was freaking out. That was the last I heard from her,” he said.

He added that Valdez did not deserve such treatment, especially since she had been treating Saudis for over a decade.

“She is a person who has served your own Saudi mothers and fathers for over 12 years,” he said. “She doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment.”

In February, a businesswoman was detained and strip-searched by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop with an unrelated man.

The incident came just days after a UN report blasted the Muslim kingdom for widespread discrimination against women and as a UN expert on women's rights began a visit to the country.

Saudi Arabia's 5,000-strong religious police have recently been investigated over a number of deaths that occurred while they raided homes or kept people in custody. Raid Qusti, Arab News with INQUIRER.net, and Agence France-Presse