Saudi Arabia's Dar al-Reaya EXPOSED: Women Endure Virginity Tests, Abuse To Shield Family Honour In Secretive 'Care Homes'

Saudi Arabia's Dar al-Reaya 'care homes' detained women for defying male guardians, with floggings, isolation, and virginity tests reported. Activists like Sarah Al-Yahia called for reform, exposing a hidden crisis despite the kingdom's empowerment narrative.

Saudi Arabia's Dar al-Reaya (Social media/Pexels)

A glimpse into a rare picture recently came to light with a young woman in a black abaya precariously balancing on a second-story window ledge in northwest Saudi Arabia. In the other photo, she is being rescued by a crane and a team of men. As per a detailed report by The Guardian, the woman was reportedly being detained at one of Saudi Arabia's secretive "care homes" — centers in which girls and young women are held for behaviours considered disobedient or dishonourable by their families, such as running away from abusive homes, being in relationships, or remaining absent without leave.

Dubbed Dar al-Reaya, the centers are formally characterised by Saudi officials as "rehabilitation" and "psychological support" shelters. But testimony collected by The Guardian over the past six months depicted a very different story: one of institutionalised abuse, psychological torture, and punishment for those women who resist patriarchal expectations.

Life Inside Dar al-Reaya

Women who used to be detained in these facilities report conditions being "hellish", including weekly beatings, forced religious indoctrination, no communication with the outside world, and extended detention unless released by a male guardian. Virginity tests, strip searches, and sedation on arrival have been noted in some accounts.

One ex-detainee described to The Guardian: "Every girl who grows up in Saudi knows about Dar al-Reaya and how horrible it is. It's like hell. I attempted to kill myself when I learned that I was going to be sent to one."

Women's rights campaigner Maryam Aldossari, who is based in London, said that most of the girls are detained until they fully surrender to family and religious norms. "A girl or young woman will remain there for however long it takes her to comply with the rules," she said.

A System Of Control, Not Protection

Set up in the 1960s, these centres were originally designed to be safe havens for women who were in legal or social trouble. Yet as The Guardian reported, they have become state-sponsored instruments of control, deployed to discipline dissent, impose gender conformity, and safeguard family honor at the expense of women's security.

Sarah Al-Yahia, who started a campaign to shut down Dar al-Reaya, explained in an interview with The Guardian that women are punished for such minor offenses as praying incorrectly or appearing alone with another woman. Prisoners are subjected to dehumanisation, being called by numbers instead of their names. "It is a prison, not a care home," she explained. "They lash you for speaking, for appearing alone, for even praying incorrectly."

Al-Yahia also recounted her own experience: her father threatened to put her in one of these homes if she did not accept his sexual abuse. "If you are raped or become pregnant by your father or brother, you are the one sent to Dar al-Reaya — for the protection of the family's honour," she explained.

Firsthand Accounts Of Abuse and Isolation

Amina (name changed), age 25, spoke of her ordeal after taking shelter in a care home in Buraydah after being subjected to domestic violence. She called the shelter "crumbling" and its staff uncaring. Rather than find protection, she had to sign an agreement to stay under the strict supervision of her father. "They told me to be grateful my life was not worse," she said.

Layla (pseudonym) reported that she was taken to Dar al-Reaya after reporting sexual abuse at home by her father and brothers. She stayed incarcerated until the same individuals gave her permission to be released. Shams, another girl, learned to dread the institution when one of the detainee women came to her school and shared what happened when being pregnant out of wedlock resulted in being put away for life.

One Saudi women's rights activist whispered to The Guardian confidentially: "The only way out is through a male guardian, marriage, or jumping off the building."

No Way Out Without Male Approval

In Saudi Arabia's male guardianship system, women's mobility and legal autonomy remain restricted. Activists told The Guardian that many girls choose between life in an abusive home or imprisonment in a care facility. Even helping a woman escape such conditions is criminalised under "absenteeism" laws.

Fawzia al-Otaibi, one of the Saudi activists who fled the kingdom in 2022, stated: "No one will tweet or talk about these locations. They shame the victims. Even when you're released, you have the stigma."

Official Response And International Criticism

Reacting to The Guardian's revelations, a Saudi government official said the care homes are "not detention centres" and that reports of abuse are investigated in depth. They claimed that women are "free to leave at any time," go to work or school, and that the state runs confidential hotlines for abused victims of domestic violence.

But human rights organisation ALQST challenges these assertions. Its campaigns officer, Nadyeen Abdulaziz, said in an interview with The Guardian that Dar al-Reaya centers "bear stark contrast to the Saudi authorities' story of women's empowerment."

"If they are committed to promoting women's rights," Abdulaziz continued, "they should eliminate these discriminatory tactics and permit the opening of true shelters that safeguard, not penalize, victims of abuse."

Even as Saudi Arabia tried to remake itself in the world — hosting international sporting events and touting social changes — activists contend that the ongoing presence of Dar al-Reaya signals an alarming truth: that authority over women continues to be embedded in state policy.

While the world continues to be fascinated with Saudi Arabia's soft-power diplomacy, the destiny of women imprisoned within the secretive facilities such as Dar al-Reaya remains a hidden crisis — only brought to light in the occasional photograph, hushed testimony, and words of those who dare to flee.