Merkel ditches scarf during visit to S Arabia
RIYADH: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has 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 at the western city of Jiddah.
Like other recent female Western visitors, Prime Minister Theresa May, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, the German Chancellor 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 full-length 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”. “It should be banned, wherever it is legally possible,” Merkel said.
Last week, the German parliament voted for a draft law banning women working in the public service, judiciary and military from wearing full-face veils.
The German leader 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.
Her country has provided refuge to hundreds of thousands of people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years. She is scheduled to travel to neighbouring United Arab Emirates after visiting Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel pledged to double Berlin’s aid to droughtstricken Somalia yesterday.
Gabriel warned 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 (R1 billion), Gabriel said after arriving in Mogadishu under strict security measures.
The minister was due to meet displaced people and former al-Shabaab fighters during his visit.
This is the first visit by a German minister to the Horn of Africa country since 2012. – dpa