Saudi Arabia has a problem. It’s been putting a lot of people on death row recently, and there aren’t enough executioners around to carry out the wishes of the State. The solution? Take out on ad, of course.
Saudi Arabia is one of the most prolific execution machines in the world, having killed 6221 people since 2007. The crimes for which one might be executed in Saudi Arabia are many, including murder, blasphemy, idolatry, homosexuality, adultery, and quite bizarrely, witchcraft and sorcery. The means of execution depend upon the crime – apostacy, or the repentance of one’s faith, means a public beheading, while the sentence for Adultery is death by stoning. Executions are usually carried out in prison or in a public square, depending on the court ruling.
Now Saudi Arabia is running out of professionally trained executioners, and prisoners on death row are merrily going around with their heads still in place. Feeling this was a most unsavory state of affairs, the government got its headhuners out and posted this ad on a state-owned website.
It says that there are 8 positions open for the role for public executioner. There are no specific skills or educational background required for “carrying out the death sentence according to Islamic Shariah after it is ordered by a legal ruling”. The jobs were classified as “religious functionaries” and that they would be at the lower end of the civil service pay scale.
This is one job which might actually have cut-throat competition at the workplace.