Women don’t have to wear robe in public: Saudi cleric

RIYADH: Saudi women should not have to wear the loose-fitting abaya robe to shroud their bodies in public, a senior cleric HAS said, in the latest sign of a farreaching liberalisation drive.

“More than 90% of pious Muslim women in the Muslim world do not wear abayas,” said Sheikh Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars -the kingdom’s highest religious body. “So we should not force people to wear abayas,” he told a television programme broadcast on Friday.

Saudi Arabia, which has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women, requires them to wear the garment by law. The government has not said whether it will change the law, but this is the first such comment from a senior religious figure.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has recently introduced a series of reforms in favour of women. Last month, women were allowed to enter a football stadium for the first time to watch a game.