Manama: Police in Saudi Arabia have arrested three people who covered their faces with the traditional burqa and harassed women in front of a shopping centre.
The three detainees, two Saudi nationals and an expatriate from an Asian country in his 30s, have been accused of disturbing public order, harassing people and engaging in immoral behaviour.
The suspects were arrested after Saudi news site Sabq posted a short clip taken by an onlooker who filmed the three men as they were imitating women’s voices and gestures and drawing attention to themselves in the city of Taef in western Saudi Arabia.
According to witnesses, one of the suspects also filmed some of their action in order to post them on a social media account.
The police said they would not tolerate any disturbance of the public order and morals, and that the three men would be referred to the competent authorities for legal action.
Last week, a court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah sentenced three young men to 75 days in jail and to 50 lashes after they were found guilty of harassing two girls in public.
The case that sent shockwaves in Saudi Arabia started in July when a gang of youngsters harassed two young women who were taking a stroll along the corniche in Jeddah.
The defendants were among the group of adolescents following the two girls, one of whom was fully veiled and the other with only the upper half of her face showing.
The two women pleaded with the raucous teenagers to leave them alone, but their pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears.
The mass harassment was recorded on a smartphone and the video clip went viral on the internet, prompting social media users to call for strong action against the anti-social elements.
In 2013, young men who were arrested in for harassment were flogged inside the mall where they had verbally abused a group of girls.
The young men were detained after a video clip of their verbal confrontation with the girls at the mall’s parking lot went viral on social networks.
The court issued jail sentences of between one month and five months and ordered that the lashings be carried out at the mall.
According to media reports, more than 2,700 harassment cases against women are recorded annually in the kingdom, with about two thirds committed by Saudis and the rest by expatriates.
