Translated by Celeste Valentini
They call them Dar al-Re’aya – from the Arabic “care homes” – and they were instituted in the ‘60s by the Saudi regimen “to rehabilitate, with the help of psychiatrists, girls accused of - or condemned for - several crimes”.
They host women and young girls between 7 and 30 years old who have been sent away by their families or husbands because of their disobedience or extramarital affairs. Officially, the women imprisoned in these “care homes” are those who need “social correction” or a “strengthening of the religious faith” and women who are awaiting trial.
But the reality is quite different.
Even if these places have always existed, people started talking about it only after an investigation published by the English journal The Guardian, which collected the testimonies of women who survived and revealed what they suffered. We are talking about physical and psychological abuses, forced religious practices and isolation, flogging, no contact with the outside world, bad sanitary conditions and malnutrition.
Basically, this system is an instrument of control and punishment for women.
The conditions are so dramatic that many women committed or attempted suicide. For example, in 2015 a woman hung herself in her cell. She even left a note that said: “I preferred to die instead of going through this Hell”.
In 2017 a photo that showed a woman with a black abaya standing on the windowsill of a palace in the North-East of the Saudi Arabia went viral. She was trying to escape, but she was captured by a group of men with a crane.
We don’t have official data about these structures, but we know that in 2016 there were 233 women imprisoned in seven structures scattered across the country. Later on, in 2018, the government announced the intention to open other five prisons.
A Saudi activist for women’s rights states: “The only way to get out from these “secret prisons” for “disobedient” girls is to have a male tutor, to marry someone or to jump off the building. Old men and ex-prisoners who couldn’t find a wife, looked for one in these institutes. For some women this was the only way out”.
Survivors’ testimonies
Women who survived to these prisons are called nazeelat. They are now activists for women’s rights and they share worldwide the horrors they lived.
In particular, Sarah Al-Yahia, who is the spokesperson of a campaign whose aim is to abolish the so-called care houses, collected many testimonies. Upon their arrival, women were subjected to a horrible treatment: they were given numbers to be identified, they were subjected to body searches and virginity tests.
They were whipped frequently, too, when they pronounced their last name, when they didn’t pray, or even when they were suspected of being lesbians, because they were spending time with another woman.
Women were monitored 24 hours a day.
Others tell how in the refugee in Riyad, the Saudi capital, their period was registered in a diary, or how they were beaten or raped by men. Reporting was useless.
Moreover, during the adolescence of many young girls, their fathers and brothers use these prisons as a threat to rape them. Some of them flee abroad, but those who can’t, have to decide between being abused or living the horrors of the prisons.
Thanks to the accusations of some ex-prisoners, in 2022 a video was shared on the English website MailOnline. This video shows Saudi policemen who brutally beat, whip and drag some women by their hair in the structure of Khamis Mushait, in the province of Asir.
What happens after the detention?
Many women were imprisoned because they were reported, repudiated or disowned by their own families. They rarely want them back. Because of that, the aim of these “care homes” is to hand over custody of the woman to a guardian within two months. If the guardian or the family refuse to accept it, the institution arrange a marriage.
Women who are over 30 years old are imprisoned in another type of structure called Dar al Theyafa – “Hospitality Home” –, which is under the control of the Ministry.
The regime’s answer
The Saudi Arabia promotes itself as a country undergoing reform. But the reality is way too different.
The hereditary prince Mohammed bin Salman promises a series of economic and social reforms - called “Vision 2030” -, but the existence of the Dar al-Re’aya is a contradiction to the goal of progressively loosening the restrictions on women’s rights.
In 2024 the Saudi Arabia got the presidency of the Commission on the Status of Women (Csw), the commission of the United Nations whose aim is to promote gender equality and to strengthen women’s rights.
In spite of that, because of its vision on human rights, the Saudi Arabia got the 126° place in the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum, among 146 countries.
How did the world react?
The organizations for the human rights such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been fighting for years now to close the Dar al-Reaya, but the intervention of the entire international community is essential: it’s important to adopt concrete measurements to guarantee dignity and freedom to women in Saudi Arabia.
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