Saudi Woman Demands Answers

Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET

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You might recall that an American businesswoman in Saudi Arabia last month was arrested, strip-searched, finger-printed, and detained for the heinous crime of hanging out in a Starbucks with a man to whom she wasn't related. Spurred in part by the notoriety of this incident, a brave female journalist with Arab News is now posing some tough questions for the famously brutal Saudi religious police, also known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Among her queries: "Why is having coffee in a public place with an unrelated man considered 'illegal seclusion'?"; "Is a strip search really necessary for women arrested for khulwa illegal seclusion?"; and finally, "Is brutally beating a suspect to death a form of promoting virtue or preventing vice?" We'll report back when this woman gets some answers or is, you know, arrested and God knows what else for courageously trying to put the system on trial. Arab News