Two heart-wrenching stories have been revealed to me by a teacher and they have made me furious and the fact that such incidents continue to happen in our girls’ public schools sends shivers down my spine.

On the first day of school, a little girl younger than ten stands along with other girls waiting for her turn to come forward and collect new books for the new academic year. The teachers, along with the headmistress, are there organizing the distribution. Because the girls are standing in the blazing sun in an open court, they are hot, sweaty and uneasy. Suddenly over the loudspeaker comes a harsh cry that shocks them all: “YOU! That’s right! You with the open blouse! Come here this minute!”

All the girls stare at the girl the headmistress has singled out. The girl, herself embarrassed and frightened, approaches the headmistress who says, “We do not accept such disreputable behavior here. Go upstairs and dress yourself properly and then come back to get your books.”

The headmistress deliberately embarrassed the girl in front of the entire school. In addition, the way in which she ordered the girl to go upstairs and “dress yourself properly” implied that the little girl was guilty of the gravest possible sin. Her sin was simply leaving the upper button of her blouse unfastened because of the heat. A ten-year old girl, in a girls’ school, surrounded by other girls and women was treated as if she were unclean.

Another girl was also embarrassed and humiliated by the punishment she received. She appeared for school with short hair on which she had put gel. Disapproving of both the short hair and the gel, the headmistress seemed to think this girl too had committed some terrible moral offense. With the authority granted to her, she acted. In front of the entire school staff and the students, she grabbed the girl from behind and pulled her to a nearby water cooler. She pushed the girl’s head under the faucet and turned it on. The girl’s head was forced under the running water and of course, not only is her head soaked but her clothes as well. The punishment, however, did not stop there. The headmistress instructed her: “You will cover your head with a tarha (the black covering used to cover women’s hair and faces) until your hair grows out.”

These two incidents are only two examples of highhandedness in our public schools for girls. It is common to hear about stories of girls being expelled for having a clipping from a magazine in their briefcases. In many cases, girls in intermediate school have their handbags searched during a break — sometimes without their knowledge — to search for signs of vice and corruption. When I say “vice and corruption,” I am not talking about drugs. I mean magazine clippings, books that speak of romance, stationery with pictures of movie stars and so forth. I need hardly say that these are all things which would be considered normal for young schoolgirls to have in their possession.

We are told that the purpose of these searches, embarrassment and humiliation is to protect the purity of our young girls. We must exert every effort to make sure that they do not end up being “Westernized” — which means immoral. When not fastening the upper button on a blouse in a crowd of girls is considered “improper”; when a girl with short hair and gel is seen as guilty of a moral sin or vice, then we have a problem with extremism among women in our country. I wonder if the members of the Kingdom’s newly established Human Rights Commission are aware of what goes on in our girls’ public schools.

In case they aren’t, perhaps we should remind them that little girls are human. They also have rights.