Saudis step back on ‘extremist ideas’ video after backlash

RIYADH: Saudi authorities distanced themselves from an official video that sparked controversy after it branded feminism, homosexuality and atheism as extremist ideas.

Saudi Arabia’s state security agency posted the animated video on Twitter last weekend at a time when de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking to open up the austere kingdom to foreign tourists and overhaul its ultra-conservative image.

The tweet has been taken down. The security agency said the video contained “many mistakes” and suggested that those behind it would face a formal investigation, according to a statement posted on Tuesday by the Saudi Press Agency.

It also rejected a report in local daily Al-Watan that feminists would be jailed and subject to flogging.

In a separate statement, the kingdom’s Human Rights Commission said “feminism is not criminalised” and that it accorded “the utmost importance to women’s rights”.

The two statements did not mention homosexuality or atheism, which are both illegal and punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

The video had sparked criticism from campaigners, with Amnesty International saying it was “extremely dangerous” and had “serious implications for the rights to freedom of expression and life, liberty and security in the country”.

Mohammed has sought to ease restrictions on women with multiple reforms, including a historic decree that ended a decades-old ban on female motorists.

But observers say loopholes still allow male relatives to curtail their movements and, in the worst cases, leave them marooned in prison-like shelters.