Investigating
Oh no, it’s the end of the world, a woman went out in public wearing clothes.
The authorities in Saudi Arabia are investigating a young woman who posted a video of herself wearing a miniskirt and crop-top in public.
The woman, a model called “Khulood”, shared the clip of her walking around a historic fort in Ushayqir.
لو كانت اجنبية كان تغزلوا بجمال خصرها وفتنتة عيناها .. بس لانها سعودية يطلبوا محاكمتها ! #مطلوب_محاكمة_مودل_خلود
pic.twitter.com/ttYqynySN2— فاطمة العيسى (@50BM_) July 16, 2017
No wonder the authorities are investigating.
On Monday, the Okaz newspaper reported that officials in Ushayqir had called on the provincial governor and police to take action against the woman.
The religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, meanwhile wrote on Twitter that it had been made aware of the video and was in contact with the relevant authorities.
Trump’s dear friends.
Today I am wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. My arms and legs are showing; so is my face and part of my neck. Someone better call the police before I hurt someone!
How can anyone defend hijabs as anything but a symbol of oppression when the ‘religious police’ in theocracies throughout the world are looking to punish this woman and women like her?
The worst part is that religious police needs no scare quotes. It’s not the so-called religious police. It’s the actual, literal RELIGIOUS POLICE.
Possibly because of all the publicity, she wasn’t “charged”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/world/middleeast/saudi-woman-khulood-released-skirt-video.html
#4. So leaving it to mob justice, perhaps?
@5,
No…
1. This isn’t Pakistan or Bangladesh… or Yemen. Things are very tightly controlled in SA and the regime is feared. If the courts released her it’s unlikely private citizens would want to contradict them with vigilante action.
2. The woman’s true identity isn’t widely known, only her web persona.
3. There have been some small moves to relax the misogyny (this from a colleague who is teaching there). They probably felt they had to respond to the twitter etc, but didn’t want too much bad publicity from abroad. There’s a young prince who’s taken over and he’s showing signs of allowing SA society to join, well, let’s say the 19th century. As the linked-to NYT article indicates, bareheadedness for women is not uncommon in some offices.
4. Who knows?