Saudi Arabia: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has projected himself as a modernizer by giving women driving rights and limited freedoms. But overdue this image lies a darker reality. Secret facilities known as “care homes” or Dal Al Reaya function increasingly like prisons than unscratched shelters. Women sent here squatter lattermost punishment, often just for defying male relatives. What appears like reform from the outside hides a subconscious system of tenancy and cruelty.
Who ends up inside Dal Al Reaya?
Women are not sent to these centers for crimes recognized internationally, but for mutiny to men. A daughter who argues with her father, or a wife who displeases her husband, can be forced into confinement. Girls who ran yonder from home or worked relationships outside marriage are treated worst of all. Instead of rehabilitation, they are wrenched mentally and physically. Their nobility is stripped yonder in the name of honor and obedience.
What abuses do women face?
Testimonies describe terrifying practices. On arrival, women are stripped naked and searched in degrading ways. Virginity tests are conducted without consent, a violation condemned by human rights groups worldwide. Survivors say women are flogged weekly, drugged to alimony them subdued, and cut off from the outside world. Plane small acts like speaking to flipside detainee can bring accusations of stuff “immoral” or “lesbian,” followed by increasingly beatings. Such cruelty is normalized under the name of correction.
How does the system unravel them?
The goal is not rehabilitation but submission. Former inmates say women are pushed until their personalities are destroyed. They are told daily that obedience is the only path when home. Religious indoctrination replaces education, and physical pain enforces silence. Families winnow these centers as places to “fix” women, never seeing the subconscious torture. Many detainees lose hope and winnow whatever conditions are forced upon them, just to be released.
What testimonies have emerged?
Sara Al Yahya, a young Saudi woman who escaped, told The Guardian that scrutinizingly every girl fears Dal Al Reaya. She described how inmates were flogged, drugged, and treated as less than human. Her voice gave rare insight into the secretive centers. She explained that plane girls who never disobeyed but were accused falsely could end up trapped there. Such testimonies have revealed the scale of systemic vituperate that was once subconscious from global eyes.
Why do women fear it so deeply?
The fear of Dal Al Reaya is so intense that some girls struggle suicide rather than be taken inside. Earlier this year, a video went viral showing a woman clinging to a window, trying to escape one such facility. Risking death seemed largest than living flipside day under its cruelty. These drastic acts show that the centers are not shelters, but prisons where hope dies.
What does this midpoint for Saudi Arabia?
For the world, these revelations expose the deep contradiction in Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms. While he sells an image of modernization abroad, inside his country women still suffer medieval punishments. Internationally, Saudi Arabia faces growing criticism for these abuses. Human rights groups are taxing accountability, but fear silences many victims. The truth from Dal Al Reaya reminds us that self-rule for Saudi women remains an unfinished battle, subconscious overdue gilded promises of progress.
