Sexual harassment of expat women in Saudi Arabia

I was shocked this could happen in Saudi Arabia, a country where sexual overtures are clamped down with iron fists. I had heard incidents like this happen in malls in Riyadh and Jeddah to fellow Indian women. When one such incident happened to one of my closest friends, when accompanied by her husband in a mall in Khobar, i could not just digest it. Indian men behaving bad in Indian roads and shopping malls, that i have seen many, but bringing such bugging to Saudi Arabia, it is something beyond imagination. My hatred just keeps burgeoning on those Indian expat men who bring their dirty baggage to Saudi malls.
 And i learnt my lesson, the veil doesnt protect women from sexual harassment, its just the adverse.

Women in Saudi Arabia are required to cover up with the burkha, irrespective of their religion and country. Westerners usually cover their body with black abayas and Indian women usually drape their salwar dupattas over their heads. It is indeed a complex issue, Saudi Arabia practises gender segregation everywhere except in hospitals. I am not going to deal in detail about the abaya here, but its about an incident that took place in Lulu Hypermarket Khobar last wednesday. My friend always does her week end shopping in Lulu Khobar on Wednesday evenings, to avoid the hectic rush on week ends- Thursdays and Fridays.

She entered the vegetables section with her two children with her husband tagging behind. He insisted on selecting some vegetables by himself, to save some time and scurried to the other side of display. Left with her two children, she started picking tomatoes when she felt someone prodding her back and when she turned swiftly there was an Indian expat, a male around forties standing with a foolish grin. If it were in India, he would have returned home with a broken tooth atleast, but oh dear, this was Saudi Arabia. Gritting her teeth she hurried to her husband who was standing on the other side and promptly complained to him. He went around and stood a few minutes plainly staring at the offender who now was wary and slowly shifted to the other section. They noted he purchased nothing, simply loitering around the shopping area. This prodding the back always goes on in shopping malls around the country. Especially the Asian women are being targeted by expat men. These maniacs are careful not to lay their fingers on native women, but the same fear must be there when confronting Asians too! The Muttawas always move around these malls and how it goes unnoticed by them is confusing.

Most Asian women just have learnt to live with it, leave alone complain to Religious Police which is a long gruelling process and out of shame and ignorance of the rules regarding this. In other cases, they feel sorry for these men who live alone for years together in solitary confinement. But dears, this is no excuse for prodding unknown abaya clad women in the crowded malls! This menace is growing by leaps and bounds and i am sincerely in the dark as to whom to complain to or what legally can be done in a case like this. Or should Indian women in Saudi Arabia simply grit their teeth and learn to "adjust" with these sexual offenders? Is it not high time something is done to curb this sexual harassment?