Details are being brought to light regarding the secretive facilities in Saudi Arabia where families send “disobedient” women and girls for punishment.
Footage obtained by the Daily Mail that first circulated in 2022 caused outrage from activists in the country. The footage showed a group of women staging a peaceful sit-in protest at the Social Education Home for Girls in Khamis Mushait over the poor conditions they were living in. Security officers then rushed in and began beating the women, including those who were already on the ground. Some were dragged by their hair and struck with belts and sticks.
The video resurfaced as former detainees have spoken out about the widespread abuses inside these so-called “care homes.”
Dr. Maryam Aldossari, a Saudi academic at Royal Holloway, University of London, told the Daily Mail that women remain trapped inside these homes despite the Saudi government’s claims of recent reforms. She said detainees cannot leave without the permission of a male guardian.
“It still exists,” she said. “We still know people who are there and God knows when they will leave.
“They completely cut them [off]. There are cameras everywhere. If you misbehave you must go to these small individual rooms, you are separated,” Aldossari added. “Anything can be considered as a violation of women's rights.”
Aldossari, who left Saudi Arabia in 2008 and now works with a human rights organization, said some women in the facilities have taken their own lives due to the abuse.
“What we do hear - it's such a dark time in Saudi Arabia. This is becoming a police state,” she said. “People are scared.”
Although local authorities initially claimed they would investigate the incident, they never condemned the actions of the officers involved, according to Aldossari’s organization.
In response to renewed scrutiny, a Saudi government spokesperson denied the facilities were detention centers and claimed “women are free to leave at any time.” Aldossari called the statement a lie, pointing out that girls as young as 13 can be detained under vague accusations of “disobedience.”
“A woman might be legally allowed to apply for her own passport because of the reforms,” she explained, referring to the country’s Personal Status Law codified in 2022. “But her male guardian can still prevent her from travelling by filing a case of disobedience - and they didn't even bother to define what disobedience means.”
“So anyone and every male says ‘my wife or my daughter’ is being disobedient and then all those rights will go.”
According to the Daily Mail, these facilities have existed since the 1960s and were originally described as rehabilitative shelters for women accused or convicted of crimes. However, numerous reports over the years have painted a picture of abuse.
In a 2021 report, women described being forced to stand for six hours at a time as punishment. In 2018, one woman told MBC that detainees were made to eat their own vomit after throwing up bad food. In 2015, local media reported a suicide at the center involving a woman who hanged herself, leaving behind a note that read, “I decided to die to escape hell.”
