"Please cover your head"

Every expat has a muttawa story. Now we have ours. The muttawa are the "religious police" or The Office of Prevention of Vice--something like that. They're supposed to make sure that everything is going religiously well in the Kingdom. At one time they were very powerful. However, their power is slipping and most Saudis would like these men to just go away.
I heard one funny story about a muttawa incident. There was a large American. He had done something that upset the muttawa. A muttawa took his stick and poked the American in the chest as he was screaming at him in Arabic. The American pushed the stick away and told the muttawa not to do that again in English. This happened two more times. On the third time the American took the stick, broke it in two and threw in down on the ground. The muttawa left.
There are horror stories too. A US-Saudi business woman was "caught" with a man not her husband. She was having a business meeting in Starbucks. The muttawa "arrested" her and took her jail. She was forced to admit that she had done wrong--after her clothes had been put in the filthy toilet and she was forced to wear these clothes in front of the judge (showing her uncleanness and humiliating her). Her husband has since hired bodyguards to protect her.
Westerners tend to be able to "get away" with most things. But, the muttawa still like to show that they are in charge. I've been told that if a muttawa says something to ignore them and nothing will happen to me--especially since I'm white.
So, Laurie, Timmie and I were walking from Hyatt Mall to the Sahara Mall--they're right next to eachother. We left the Hyatt and were getting ready to cross the street. A green Suburban with a police symbol pulled up. Laurie had her abayya on (which she doesn't have to wear according to the law but all expat women are "encouraged" to wear it) and her head scarf was around her neck (the normal place an expat woman wears it). A Saudi man with piercing eyes (actually kind of scary wacky eyes) looked at Laurie and said "Please, cover your head." It wasn’t' mean, but it wasn't nice. Laurie did. They drove off. We went into the Sahara Mall.
While in the mall Laurie kept the scarf on her head. As we were leaving the mall who do we pass? The muttawa. He looked at us and kept walking.
So what do we do as expats? Do we ignore the muttawa? Do we "give in" so they can pretend they are “in charge?" It's really a quandary. The bottom line is nobody forced any of us to come here and work. We all came on our own accord. We knew that there were laws and customs to obey. It's always interesting to hear what the more "seasoned" expats have to say. Most will vilify the muttawa but do what they say.
It's not like there are a million muttawa. The last figure I saw was around 10,000. Riyadh has something like 8 million people. So it's not as if the muttawa are lurking on every street corner with a stick ready to beat people (the sticks are long gone and there are way too many street corners). They don't hit you anymore. They have to have a policeman to "arrest" you. They aren't allowed to arrest a woman by themselves--in fact from what I understand a woman can't be arrested unless the husband or a male relative is there and agrees. And if you talk back to the muttawa they tend to back down--especially if you are Western (but I'm not ready to try that just yet). Their "power" is slipping and they know it--maybe that's why they look so mad.
It's just another part of the adventure of being here. At least he said "Please."