Saudi king photo with women spices mixing debate

[Siciid1986]

 

 

RIYADH — Saudi newspapers ran front page pictures on Friday of King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz in a crowd of women with their faces bared, adding fuel to the growing fight over mixing in the kingdom.

 

The undated photograph showed the kingdom's two most powerful men together with more than three dozen smiling women at a seminar on health and the community in the southwestern city of Najran held several weeks ago.

 

The photograph was published in several leading newspapers including Okaz, Ashahrq al-Awsat and Al-Watan, each with a close link to senior members of the ruling royal family.

 

No reason was given for why the picture was published only now; accompanying text gave a routine description of the theme of the conference.

 

But the photo appeared amid a mounting and increasingly open debate over the country's harsh ban on unrelated women and men mixing together enforced by ultra-conservative Saudi Muslim clerics.

 

In the past 10 days the outspoken head of the Mecca branch of the Saudi religious police, who enforce official Islamic morality, was fired and then mysteriously reinstated after he broke ranks to say that there was nothing in Islamic tradition and law banning mixing.

 

Newspapers reported vaguely that a high-level figure had intervened to save Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, after the president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, signed and published an order naming his replacement.

 

Most of the women in the photograph on Friday were also baring their faces, against leading clerics' insistence, often enforced by the religious police, that women's faces must be covered in public.

 

King Abdullah has not publicly spoken out on the debate. But last year he opened a new science university named after himself that permits the international body of students and faculty to freely mix together.

 

When a senior cleric criticised the university, he was summarily fired by order of the king himself.

[ailamos]

good news... slow reform

When a senior cleric criticised the university, he was summarily fired by order of the king himself.

I hope the king doesn't get overthrown by the ultra-religious faction...

[Herer]

media....media...

[Ibtisam]

In the past 10 days the outspoken head of the Mecca branch of the Saudi religious police, who enforce official Islamic morality, was fired and then mysteriously

reinstated after he broke ranks to say that there was nothing in

Islamic tradition and law banning mixing.

 

Newspapers reported vaguely that a high-level figure had intervened to save Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, after the president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, signed and published an order naming his replacement.

[ailamos]

Most of the women in the photograph on Friday were also baring their faces, against leading clerics' insistence, often enforced by the religious police, that women's faces must be covered in public.

Both Saudi Arabia and Belgium are forcing women to conform to certain misconceived thoughts on whether their faces should or shouldn't be shown in public. Why don't they let go and leave it up to the Muslim woman, free from pressure and intimidation, to decide?

[Jacpher]

^But unlike Belgium, Saudi Arabia doesn't broadcast itself as a democracy, freedom of religion and press kind of country.

[Jacaylbaro]

Boqorku wuu is haysan kari waayay dee ,,,,,

[Cara.]

It's like "Where's Waldo?" for slow people

[General Duke]

Dont tell Fuad Shangole, he might have a nervous breakdown.

[Khayr]

Ailamos,

 

I thought that this post was from you and then I saw that you were the 2nd person to reply.

How come you weren't the first person to post this? You slowing down on us.....

[Haatu]

Subxaanallah

[ailamos]

Originally posted by Khayr:

Ailamos,

 

I thought that this post was from you and then I saw that you were the 2nd person to reply.

How come you weren't the first person to post this? You slowing down on us.....

looool... I certainly would've posted it if siciid didnt beat me to it besides yaa khayr work has been quite hectic the last couple of days, barely had a breather...

[ailamos]

Originally posted by Jacphar:

^But unlike Belgium, Saudi Arabia doesn't broadcast itself as a democracy, freedom of religion and press kind of country.

Spot on, Jacphar, I smell hypocrisy...

[Jacaylbaro]

and Norf will talk about the "Arab Model of Islam" ,,,

[Sherban Shabeel]

Originally posted by Jacphar:

^But unlike Belgium, Saudi Arabia doesn't broadcast itself as a democracy, freedom of religion and press kind of country.

But unlike Saudi Arabia, Belgium doesn't broadcast itself as the home of Islam and a holy country, while at the same time its leaders get drunk on Ramadan, throw away fortunes on luxury escorts, on girls from Eastern Europe, on supercars, on military hardware from Americans, and in general make a mockery of their religion & culture.

 

Hypocrisy is an international disease buddy. It's not just a European thing.