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PP RUEHDE
DE RUEHJI #0378/01 1421316
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 221316Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL JEDDAH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9174
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1382
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1460
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 6506
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000378 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP; 
LONDON FOR TSOU; PARIS FOR ZEYA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2016 
TAGS: ELAB KISL KJUS KWMN PGOV PHUM SA SMIG SOCI
SUBJECT: JEDDAH JOURNAL 12: BINLADEN GROUP ARRANGES HASTY 
CONVERSIONS, WOMEN SET TO WORK AS LAWYERS AND LINGERIE 
SALESPERSONS, SAUDI TRIBUNAL OVERRULES MINISTRY, MYSTERIOUS 
CORPSES CONTINUE TO PILE UP 
 
REF: JEDDAH 274 
 
Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller for reasons 
1.4(b) and (d) 
 
BINLADEN GROUP ARRANGES EXPEDITIOUS CONVERSIONS FOR 
WESTERNERS WORKING IN HOLY CITIES 
 
¶1.     (C) The Saudi construction giant the Binladen Group 
recently dispatched three Dutch engineers, two Christians and 
an atheist, to Cairo for expeditious conversion to Islam. 
According to a Consulate contact who works for the Group, the 
engineers were urgently needed to work on the Jabal Omar 
project, a huge construction project overlooking the Grand 
Mosque in Mecca. Non-Muslims are forbidden to enter the city, 
and the three engineers are required to show a certificate 
stating they are Muslim in order to go to the project site. 
The engineers traveled to Egypt because the procedures for 
converting to Islam there, a one-day process consisting of 
the recitation of the two holy testaments (the "shahadateen") 
before a sheikh and two witnesses at al-Azhar mosque, are 
less onerous than in Saudi Arabia. Conversion in Saudi 
Arabia, on the other hand, requires a thorough investigation 
to confirm one's study of Islam and the Quran, which can take 
several months. The Binladen Group has reportedly arranged 
similar conversions before, since being awarded the contract 
to expand the Grand Mosque in the early 1980s. According to 
the source, the company retains agents in Cairo to facilitate 
the conversion of non-Muslim experts when needed for projects 
in Mecca and Medina. Other sources have said the Saudi 
government has furnished non-Muslims with iqamas (residency 
permits) stating that the holder is Muslim when it was 
expedient to do so (reftel). 
 
AL-WATAN: MINISTRY OF JUSTICE TO ESTABLISH BAR ASSOCIATION 
AND GRANT LICENSES TO FEMALE LAWYERS 
 
¶2.     (U) On May 4, the newspaper al-Watan reported that the 
Ministry of Justice is planning to issue new regulations for 
the legal profession. The regulations will establish a bar 
association, the Saudi Lawyers Association, which will 
participate in setting qualifications for the practice of the 
law in Saudi Arabia and organize legal training programs for 
Saudi lawyers. 
 
¶3.     (C) In addition, the regulations reportedly will, for 
the first time, permit women to practice law in the Kingdom. 
Saudi newspapers have reported that women will be permitted 
to practice law on a number of occasions in the past two 
years, but the Ministry has always publicly denied such 
reports. The Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied this 
recent al-Watan report. One Consulate contact in the 
Ministry's Jeddah office, Tarek al-Ali, denied any knowledge 
of the new regulations, though, and said no official 
statement has been issued by the Ministry in Riyadh. 
 
¶4.     (C) The Ministry has been considering reform of the 
legal profession for the past three years in response to 
developments such as Saudi Arabia's accession to the World 
Trade Organization, and Ministry studies suggest the Kingdom 
will need 11,000 new lawyers in the coming five years. Al-Ali 
noted that several local universities have established law 
departments for women, which will graduate 175 female legal 
specialists annually in two years' time. However, Mais Abu 
Dalbouh, a female lawyer who has worked as an unlicensed 
consultant in the A.Z. Yamani Law Office for the past three 
years, and has unsuccessfully applied for a law license every 
year, said she is not holding her breath. She added, though, 
that if this recent report turns out to be untrue, she may 
move to Bahrain in order to be able to practice her 
profession freely. 
 
MEANWHILE, MINISTRY OF LABOR ANNOUNCES RULES FOR EMPLOYMENT 
OF WOMEN IN LINGERIE SHOPS 
 
¶5.     (U) Saudi cultural mores--in this case, a general 
prohibition against mixing between men and women, 
particularly in the workplace--have resulted in a glaring 
anomaly: lingerie shops staffed entirely by men. According to 
the newspaper Okaz, the Ministry of Labor has issued new 
 
JEDDAH 00000378  002 OF 002 
 
 
regulations to fix the problem. Lingerie shops will be 
permitted to employ women, provided the female employee's 
guardian has authorized her to work, the shop maintains 
strict segregation of the sexes, the shop is set up in such a 
way as to prevent passersby from catching a glimpse of female 
employees and shoppers, and the employee's duties are 
suitable in light of her feminine nature. Moreover, the 
employee's work must not hinder her performance of her 
domestic duties, nor cause her any social or moral damage. 
She must work with decency and integrity by, among other 
things, wearing the hijab. The regulations are set to go into 
effect on June 19, though a source told the CG their 
implementation will be delayed by a month because businesses 
have appealed for more time to replace their foreign staff. 
 
SAUDI TRIBUNAL OVERTURNS MINISTRY OF COMMERCE DECISION 
 
¶6.     (U) The Diwan al-Mazalim (Board of Grievances), an 
appellate tribunal outside the sharia system established in 
the 1950s to adjudicate commercial disputes, has for the 
first time in its history overturned a decision of the 
Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The case began three years 
ago, when elections for chairman of the Taif Chamber of 
Commerce and Industry ended in a draw between two candidates, 
Ahmed al-Amoudy and Abdullah al-Qadi. The Ministry stepped 
into the fray and demanded that the two settle the election 
between themselves. When the two could not agree on which one 
of them would become chairman, the Ministry stepped in again 
and appointed a third man, Naif al-Odwani, to be chairman. In 
late April, the Diwan voided the Ministry's appointment, 
ordered new elections, and fined the Ministry 20,000 Saudi 
riyals (approximately $5,300). 
 
DECOMPOSED BODIES CONTINUING TO PILE UP IN DESERT OUTSIDE 
RENYA 
 
¶7.     (U) The number of corpses found in al-Hamman desert 
west of Renya, about 350 kilometers south of Taif, has risen 
to 36. Since the decomposed bodies began turning up several 
months ago, Saudi authorities have consistently stated that 
the dead were illegal immigrants who died of hunger or thirst 
while crossing into the Kingdom through the remote desert to 
avoid detection. An official Interior Ministry investigation 
in March concluded the same. According to reports, though, 
the locals suspect foul play. The bodies have been found in 
close proximity to one another, with their faces covered and 
tire tracks nearby, indicating they may have been dumped in 
the desert. 
Gfoeller