Religious police let girls die, papers say
Combined news services
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Government-run newspapers in Saudi Arabia have accused the country's religious police of preventing the rescue of girls trapped in a school fire because they were not wearing the long dresses and head coverings required in public.
Fourteen girls died in the catastrophe last Monday at the 31st Girls Middle School in Mecca, about 470 miles southeast of Riyadh. Fifty others were injured.
The religious police, which have offices in every city, are routinely criticized privately in Saudi society, but this was believed to be the first time that newspapers in the kingdom have come out with harsh words against them.
The newspapers accused members of the religious police - the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice - of blocking rescue attempts by male firefighters and paramedics because some of the girls were not wearing the mandatory Islamic dress, which covers the entire body and hair.
