Munasaha anti-terrorism rehabilitation advisory program has said that courses run at colleges in six regions of the Kingdom have revealed a worrying extent of extremist influence on Saudi women. Ibrahim Al-Maiman, who is also deputy head of the Center for Fiqh Research on Contemporary Issues at the Higher Institute of the Judiciary and a professor of Comparative Jurisprudence at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University, said that Al-Munasaha committees had been met with questions concerning the legitimacy of “sheltering and hiding husbands who belong to those of deviant thought” and maintaining silence over “sons who frequent suspect Internet sites”. “Al-Qaeda's turning to the recruitment of women to carry out their plans is nothing new and the methods are not particularly innovative,” Al-Maiman said. “It's part of an old strategy. The idea of inter-marrying between members'families existed at the time of what is known as the Afghani jihad and later, with the organization trying to promote it to recruit women and influence women into joining the world of terrorism.” Al-Maiman said that the tactic took advantage of “men's influence over their wives” and exploited marriage rulings to reach wives and “through them recruit other female members”. According to Al-Maiman, the current situation represents a significant development in the role of women in the ideology. “They are funding, recruiting, harboring, and hiding, and in some regions the role has turned into actual participation in carrying out acts of terrorism,” he said. Huge efforts are being made by the authorities in terms of security and ideology, Al-Maiman, said, and not just in terms of reacting to events, but proactively as well. “There are strategies and actions on the part of institutions to confront the ideas of the deviant group, but intellectual awareness directed at women is still limited, and doesn't match the outstanding security role revealed in the arrest of the terrorist Haila Al-Qusayyer, who was announced due to the significant part she played in the deviant organization. The likes of her, are however, many.” Al-Maiman said that indications of female sympathizers with the deviant group at universities and colleges were exposed in questions put to the Al-Munasaha committees over the legitimacy of not-reporting husbands to the authorities, and questions over what a woman should do if she found that her husband or father was involved in deviant thought and whether harboring would not be performing her duty towards her husband. Another question put to Al-Munasaha representatives concerned a woman's son who had retreated into complete privacy in friendships developed with persons of deviant thought on suspect Internet websites, and asked whether “reporting him would be regarded as against Shariah jihad”. Universities, public education institutions and schools, Al-Maiman said, are “failing in their duty” to protect young women from the dangers of extremism and deviant thought. “Universities and earlier education bodies are not doing enough and what they do do does not match the currently occurring scope and level of influence on young women,” he said, adding that women are generally “not given attention” and treated as “well-meaning”. Al-Maiman did not reveal where examples of extremist thought were made apparent to the committees, but said that the Al-Munasaha program ran the six courses in Sharoura, Turba, Al-Kharma, Yanbu, Al-Zulfi, and Hafr Al-Batin. – Okaz/SG“Following the positive effect observed from the Al-Munasaha program on prisoners who had formerly belonged to the deviant group, we plan to run the programs in all the country's regions without exception,” he said.
