Muttawa Holidays

Ramadan is the busiest season of the year for the members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) aka Saudi religious police force. I like to refer to them more familiarly as muttawa because they've become so dear to me.
During this month malls everywhere will fill up with Saudis shopping until they drop (which would be around 2 am). What a better opportunity for the muttawa to get some serious moral enforcement done! If you don't know what Saudi religious police are read more here and find out some of my previous encounters with them here and here.

New toys for the bearded boys
Before the Holy Month the muttawa have been busy preparing their fleet of white GMC Suburbans in anticipation of making many new arrests. CPVPV recently received some (about 53 million dollars) bribery ahem sorry support money from the royal family and they were able to pimp their 600 rides with hi-tech anti-immorality gadgets. The GMC's now contain laptops, scanners, fax and copy machines and I bet a coffee machine and a plasma TV too.

Why is Ramadan such a fruitful time for muttawa?
Firstly because of the pure numbers of immodestly dressed women and men at malls nearly triple compared to normal months. Uncovered faces, male-leggings (meggins), pink shirts on men, shorts, flashy abayas, high heels, t-shirts with the highest button left unbuttoned..

You name it- surely the muttawa will find it.

During daytime muttawa are also on the look out to catch foreigners secretly taking a sip of water or chewing gum in public places which is viewed as forbidden during Ramadan daylight hours (but only in Saudi-Arabia!)

Ramadan also enables easier entry to malls for single men who are normally unable to enter malls without a female (guardian). They might try to sneak into crowded malls by infiltrating in groups of women as fake brothers.

Special opportunities 
Food courts are another place of interest for muttawa since lots of haram mixing happens if the food court counters are not separated by screens. Women tend to remove their veils partially when eating in the closed family sections. This poses great potential for eager muttawas specialized in terrorizing dining females.

Women's clothing stores might have hidden dressing rooms in the back rooms and if found the muttawa have really hit the jackpot!
Another point of interest for muttawa are mirrors. Some shops for women's clothing actually hide mirrors behind the racks.

Muttawa are also keen to check on the abaya shops for anything with too much color or bling-bling on it. In other words, anything other than ALL BLACK is forbidden. There is no point of going to the abaya shops when muttawa are present at the mall (if looking for anything else than the standard all black version). Abaya salesmen are clever enough to trick muttawa by hiding the flashy abayas and scarves. Even the catalog for the embroidery and sequins have magically disappeared.

Muttawa field trips
I experienced the muttawa having a blast at one their favorite hangouts Granada Mall, known to locals as "Gharnaata Moll". As my husband and I entered I noted the presence of not one but two muttawa vehicles parked outside the entrance. I made a remark to my husband betting we will run into them. I counted seven muttawa apprentices in addition to the Big Boss donning the "Harry Potter" cape, all accompanied by one or two security officers.

We actually went to this mall specifically to check out the Saudi Cancer Society Photo Exhibition held there. Funny how they allowed that btw.

I took some pictures and before I could say "maashallah" I spotted the muttawa.

They didn't seem to have any interest in the exhibition itself (although images of live things and art by Saudi women were on display and there was no segregation of sexes). Instead they were going in and out of stores checking for above mentioned forbidden things.
As a side note, unfortunately the exhibition didn't attract many visitors, only a few men went in. No women entered during the time we were there. Maybe they were too busy shopping?

The bearded bullies enter a kids clothing shop 
The store was packed with women and the joyous mood instantly changed to silence and wary looks.
The bearded threat first went around and told all women to cover(they all had niqab on). He then picked out one of the male staff and took him to the back room. Everyone was quiet and  the atmosphere was like being in a horror movie, will he return alive?

After they emerged (the clerk looked very pale) the muttawa approached my husband. He started interrogating him; name, workplace and so on. The muttawa had an issue with his shorts which were under the knee length but nevertheless the muttawa deemed them inappropriate. He told my husband he should leave the mall! 
My husband promised not to wear them next time.

During this grilling session the security guy stood nearby looking extremely squirmy and embarrassed trying to motion for the muttawa to leave.

The muttawa ignored the police officer and then shifted his interest to me.

He asked my husband why doesn't your wife have a niqab (face veil) on? My husband replied: "What she is wearing is fine. What is your problem?"
The muttawa said Saudi men should keep their jewels hidden. Hehehe. So what was the rebellious exposed jewel doing during all this? Laughing to herself at the funny situation and taking a picture of course!

So what happened to the salesman they harassed? The highest button on his T-shirt had been open and muttawa had given him a long lecture in the back room.