In a world increasingly aware of human rights violations, some abuses still go unheard — or worse, ignored. In Saudi Arabia, women and girls are being detained, starved, beaten, and psychologically tormented for no crime other than refusing to obey their male abusers. These atrocities, committed behind the walls of so-called “care homes,” are not merely political issues — they are moral emergencies that cry out to every Catholic conscience.
According to rights group ALQST, the Dar al-Re’aya institutions, whose name means “care homes,” have become modern-day prisons for women and girls as young as seven, accused not of crimes, but of “disobedience” to their male guardians. “It’s like hell,” one woman, now living in exile, told The Sun. “I knew what happened to women there and thought, ‘I can’t survive it.’”
Women who resist domestic sexual abuse are often forced to choose between ongoing victimization at home or incarceration. As one advocate, Sarah Al-Yahia, revealed to The Guardian, “If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father you are the one sent to Dar al-Re’aya to protect the family’s reputation.” In these facilities, victims are stripped of dignity and identity — literally. Inmates are referred to by numbers, not names. One was “lashed for sharing her family name instead of her number,” according to a woman who escaped. “If she doesn’t pray, she gets lashes. If she is found alone with another woman she gets lashes and is accused of being a lesbian.”
The suffering doesn’t end at physical abuse. Reports detail strip searches, virginity tests, sedative use, solitary confinement, and even forced standing for six hours as punishment. Suicide attempts are not rare — one young woman, after hanging herself in her cell, left a heartbreaking note: “I decided to die to escape hell.”
As Catholics, we believe in the inherent dignity of every human person — created in the image of God, endowed with inalienable rights, and worthy of protection, no matter their gender or nation. Pope Francis has repeatedly called on the world to be a voice for the voiceless and a defender of those crushed under systems of oppression. What is happening in these Saudi prisons is not justice — it is institutionalized evil disguised as guardianship.
While Dar al-Re’aya was once presented as a rehabilitation facility, its true nature today has little to do with care. According to ALQST, these prisons are used to detain “young girls and women… accused of having ‘become delinquent’ or ‘disobedient’” — often at the whim of abusive male relatives. Women cannot be released from the prison unless a male guardian agrees to take custody — even if he is the original abuser.
We cannot stand by in silence. We must pray, yes — but we must also act. Catholics must call on global leaders, Church voices, and human rights organizations to expose and dismantle these “hellish” institutions. We must support groups like ALQST and Catholic humanitarian agencies working to rescue and rehabilitate women and girls abused in the name of family honor. And we must raise our voices in every parish, classroom, and social media post to proclaim: women are not property. They are not expendable. They are beloved daughters of God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “the equality of men and women rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it” (CCC 1935). That dignity is being violated every day behind the walls of Dar al-Re’aya. Will we, the global Church, answer Christ’s call to defend the least of these?
Let our response begin with truth, be shaped by compassion, and end in justice.
