Speaking out in public or sharing footage of these “care homes”, or Dar al-Reaya, has become impossible in a country where voices on women’s rights appear to have been silenced. But over the past six months, the Guardian has gathered testimony about what it is like inside these institutions, described as “hellish”, with weekly floggings, forced religious teachings and no visits or contact with the outside world.
Conditions are reported to be so bad that there have been several cases of suicide or attempted suicide. The women can spend years locked up, unable to leave without the permission of their family or a male guardian.
“Every girl growing up in Saudi knows about Dar al-Reaya and how awful it is. It’s like hell. I tried to end my life when I found out I was going to be taken to one. I knew what happened to women there and thought ‘I can’t survive it’,” says one young Saudi woman who later managed to flee into exile.
The weirdest thing about the submissive nature of women is that it has to be enforced all the time.
Saudi Arabia needs to run out of money and get into an “all hands needed” situation to change (at which point they will surely discover that half of hands belong to women).
The king needs to lose his ability to bribe people to shut up.
Everyone can help this a little by transitioning off oil, gas and other petrochemical products, not letting this country acquire advanced technology, and generally not cooperating with them.