Exiled Saudi physicist and political dissident Mohammad al-Massari described police attacks on women in a 3 March 2011 Qatif demonstration as a strategic error, saying, "They made a stupid mistake by attacking women and so on because they think Shia women do not have ... the honor protection like the rest of the women in the country. But attacking women in Saudi Arabia, in an Islamic country is very severe, very negative and catastrophic ... and this will have dire repercussions."[198]