Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Saudi Arabia)
| الرئاسة العامة للأمر بالمعروف و النهي عن المنكر | |
Seal of the Committee
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1940 |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | https://www.pv.gov.sa |
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (abbreviated CPVPV; Arabic: هيئة الأمر بالمعروف و النهي عن المنكر ), also informally referred to as Hai’a, is the Saudi Arabian government agency employing “religious police” or Mutaween (مطوعين), to enforce Sharia Law within that Islamic nation.
The number of police is estimated at 3,500-4,000. Members patrol the streets enforcing dress codes, strict separation of men and women, salat prayer by Muslims during prayer times, and other behavior it believes to be commanded by Islam. They are known for having full beards (sometimes henna-dyed) and for wearing their headscarves (ghutrah or shemagh) loose without an agal—they often wear a besht as well—and for often coming from Saudi Arabia’s lower classes. They were empowered to detain and berate offenders and shut down businesses. Prior to the reforms of 2007 they were armed with thin wooden canes to strike miscreants. However, as of April 2016, the Saudi Council of Ministers has issued a regulation that stripped the religious police of their powers.
The police were formerly called the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Elimination of Sin, also CAVES or CPVPV. They are also known locally as Hai’a (literally "committee", also transliterated as Haia or Hayaa), or mutawiyin (literally “the pious”, sometimes alternately translated as “the volunteers”). (See Mutaween for a list of variant spellings and an extended description of Islamic religious police.)
In the 1980s, King Fahd issued a royal decree formally creating the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. The head of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, as well as all of the Committee’s employees serve at the pleasure of the king, presently King Salman.
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