Saudi Teens Wanted Their MTV and Sin: Under Religious Police Investigation

A young Saudi girl known only by the her first name of Fatima has sinned because she once disguised herself as a boy to ride a bike in the streets of her hometown of Jeddah.
She said she also rebelled against wearing an oppressive black abayas robe - the traditional women's dress by making her own abayas in bright colors, which she sold to her friends. .

For these 'sins', she and two other youths faces stiff penalties for appearing on the MTV documentary series Resist the Power, to talk about the creative ways they skirt the country's strict morality codes, after the Saudi religious police filed a lawsuit against them for the crime of "openly declaring sin."

If the police are successful in dragging them into court - the Saudi judicial system is based on a strict Islamic code, the teens face morality offenses that sometimes include lashes with a whip and years of imprisonment. Punishment westerners consider outdated and barbaric.

A decision may potentially be made on whether to prosecute the teens in the next few days, Reuters has reported. An officer at the Jeddah court said it would take at least a week to decide whether to proceed to trial.

The MTV series originally aired on May 24, followed the adventures of Aziz who tries to meet his girlfriend for a date, Ahmad who thinks women should have more independence and Fatima.

On the show a broken hearted Aziz says, "We are not free to live as we like," and goes into detail describing the trials he goes through when trying to arrange dates in Jeddah with his girlfriend.

The four part documentary, which was seen by American audiences, also follows a Saudi heavy metal band who find's it difficult to find venues that will allow them to play.

Last year, a self professed Saudi playboy named Mazen Abdul-Jawad was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and five years in prison for discussing his sexual escapades on a show aired by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.

"It will be very difficult to stop the religious clockwork once this gets to court," a Saudi lawyer told Reuters. The True Life subjects "may face harsh sanctions like those dealt to Abdul-Jawad."