The Saudi government has launched an investigation after online videos appeared to show security forces assaulting teenage girls at an orphanage.
In the unconfirmed video, plainclothes police and government personnel are supposedly seen invading the Social Education House in Khamis Mushait.
One official appears to drag a crying girl over the ground by her hair, while a police officer strikes her with a belt.
It is depicted that other girls are being pursued and thrashed with wooden sticks.
Uncertain were the circumstances and timing of the incident, but a Twitter user who claimed to have edited the videos wrote that the girls staged a “strike against corruption and injustice” after “demanding their rights from the orphanage and being denied”
She later uploaded images of what she said were injuries several of the girls received during the raid and claimed a senior official had threatened them if the films were not removed from social media.
The hashtag “Khamis Mushait Orphans” began trending on Twitter in Saudi Arabia after “Khamis Mushait Orphans” footage sparked outrage from human rights activists and dissidents on Tuesday night.
ALQST, a British human rights organization, described the clip as “disturbing” and demanded that Saudi authorities “bring the culprits accountable.”
The opposition National Assembly Party, comprised of exiled dissidents, condemned the “vicious attacks” and demanded, “the protection of girls in shelters and orphanages to allow them to exercise their fundamental rights.”
Wednesday, the governor of the southwestern Asir region announced in a statement that he had formed a committee to investigate the video and that the committee’s findings would be forwarded to the appropriate authorities.
The incident occurred at a time of rising international concern regarding women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, where in recent years the government has lifted a ban on women driving and relaxed male guardianship rules while imprisoning prominent female activists in a crackdown on dissent.
The US-based human rights organization Dawn announced this week that a Saudi lady was sentenced to 45 years in prison for criticizing the kingdom’s leaders on social media.
Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was found guilty of “using the internet to tear the social fabric” and “violating public order by using social media,” according to court documents.
A Ph.D. student at Leeds University, Salma al-Shehab, was sentenced to 34 years in prison earlier this month for her Twitter activity.
