Merkel ditches scarf during visit to S Arabia

RIYADH: German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Saudi Arabia without a headscarf for talks with the oil-rich kingdom’s monarch.

Merkel was greeted by King Salman and other top officials on Sunday in the city of Jiddah.

Like other recent female Western visitors, Prime Minister Theresa May, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, she did not cover her hair upon arrival in the conservative Islamic kingdom as an inspiration to oppressed women in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia enforces a conservative dress code in public, requiring women to wear a fulllength robe and cover their hair, in keeping with other restrictive laws including a guardian system limiting women’s movement and a ban on driving.

Merkel has called for the burqa to be banned in Germany, saying it was “not acceptable in our county”.

Last week, the German parliament voted for a draft law banning women working in the civil service, judiciary and military from wearing full-face veils. Merkel is expected to press Gulf leaders to do more to take in refugees and provide humanitarian relief for refugees fleeing conflict in Muslim-majority countries.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel pledged to double Berlin’s aid to drought-stricken Somalia yesterday, warning of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the country where more than 6 million people are facing food insecurity.

Germany has already pledged aid worth €70 million. – dpa