Women are being banged up, starved and flogged in "hellish" Saudi prisons for being "disobedient" to their husbands. Several female inmates have said they were sent to the grim punishment facilities for objecting to sexual abuse at home. Women are reportedly locked away in isolation cells until they "reconcile" with their cruel abusers.
A campaigner fighting to abolish the brutal facilities, Sarah Al-Yahia, told the Guardian that her dad threatened to send her to one as a child "if I didn't obey his sexual abuse." She bravely explained: "If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father you are the one sent to Dar al-Re'aya to protect the family's reputation." She added that often women are given the impossible choice of enduring horrific abuse at home or being locked up.
Documented cases show evidence of abuse and neglect at the notorious Dar al-Re'aya jails, according to rights group ALQST. Prisoners are left malnourished and banged up in solitary confinement, the organization claims. Several cases of suicide attempts in recent years have also been reported. The name of the jails, Dar al-Re'aya, literally translates to "care homes."
The "care homes" have existed since the 1960s and were initially presented as a rehabilitative "shelter" for women accused or convicted of certain crimes. The infamous cells house women and girls between the ages of just seven years old and 30. But women's rights groups today admit that the notorious prisons now function mainly as detention facilities for young girls and women. The female inmates are accused of having "become delinquent or have been accused by their male guardians of disobedience".
Another Saudi women who fled into exile said that these jails are well-known across the country, saying, "It's like hell. I tried to end my life when I found out I was going to be taken to one." She added: "I knew what happened to women there and thought 'I can't survive it.'' Women have previously been described being made to stand for six hours straight as a punishment for disobedience.
The 38-year-old said that inmates are subject to strip searches and even virginity tests on arrival. They are also given sedatives to put them to sleep. Inmates are addressed by numbers, not names, the exiled woman said. She recalled that one woman was lashed for saying her family name instead of her number. "If she doesn't pray, she gets lashes. If she is found alone with another woman she gets lashes and is accused of being a lesbian," she explained. "The guards gather and watch when the girls are being lashed."
In 2015, a woman was found to have hanged herself from the ceiling of her room at one of the Dar al-Re'aya prisons. She left behind a written note saying: "I decided to die to escape hell." A staff member at another shelter was quoted as having said that children suffer the worst kind of psychological and physical torture. According to Arab News, they said: "With my own eyes I saw a worker beating on a child not more than 13 years of age."
One woman also told the Guardian that she was taken to Dar al-Re'aya after complaining about her dad and brothers. She was then abused at the prison and accused of bringing shame upon her family for her social media posts touting women's rights. She was held in the institution until her dad agreed she could be released - despite him being the alleged abuser. Girls and women can only be released from Dar al-Re'aya into the custody of a male relative, ALQST reported.
Data is rarely released about the facilities. In 2016, there were reportedly 233 girls and women held in seven facilities across the Arab kingdom.
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