mutawa

mutawa

English

Alternative forms

• mutawwa
• muttawa

Etymology

From the Arabic مُطَوَّع‎ (muṭawwaʿ, “compliance officer, pious volunteer”), from طَوَّعَ‎ (ṭawwaʿa, “to subjugate”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʊˈtɑːwə/, /muːˈtɑːwə/

Noun

mutawa (plural mutaween)

1. A member of the religious police in Saudi Arabia.
   • 2007 August 6th, Scott Macleod, “Vice Squad” in Time CLXX, № 5, page 36:

     Meanwhile, another trial is already under way in the city of Tabuk, where the family of a man who died of an apparent heart attack in the commission’s custody is likewise demanding a death sentence for four mutaween allegedly involved in his detention. Ahmed al-Bulawi died after being hauled into a local commission headquarters for being in a car with a woman who was not his close relative; the mutaween apparently acted too hastily, since it turned out that he was employed as the family’s driver.

   • ibidem, page 37:

     Conservatively dressed, but not in the standard attire of Saudi women, Wynn-Stanley was harangued by a mutawwa, so she pulled out her Saudi-issued diplomatic identity card. The mutawwa’s response was to throw it on the ground and grind it into the pavement with the sole of his shoe, a gesture considered a grave insult in Arab custom.

2. The religious police as a body.

Further reading

• Mutaween on Wikipedia.Wikipedia