Hijab, abaya not a must: Saudi CP
riyadh — Women in Saudi Arabia need not wear hijab or the abaya as long as their attire is “decent and respectful,” the kingdom’s reformminded crown prince said.
With the ascent to power of Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the kingdom has seen an expansion in women’s rights, including a decision to allow women to attend mixed public sporting events and the right to drive cars from this summer.
“The laws are very clear and stipulated in the laws of Shariah: that women wear decent, respectful clothing, like men,” Prince Mohammed said in an interview with CBS television aired late on Sunday.
“This, however, does not particularly specify a black abaya or a black head-cover. The decision is entirely left for women to decide what type of decent and respectful attire she chooses to wear.”
The prince was asked if women were equal to men. “Absolutely. We are all human beings and there is no difference,” he said.
The crown prince also said work is under way for a new initiative to introduce regulations ensuring equal pay for men and women. — AFP, Reuters
washington — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman defended his country’s campaign in Yemen at the outset of a US tour to generate good-will for his nation, accusing rebel forces of exploiting the situation there to win sympathy from the international community.
The prince spoke about his nation’s relationship with Iran during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that airs on Sunday. The interview covered topics ranging from easing strict adherence to orthodoxy in his country to and nuclear arms.
Mohammed is expected to meet with President Donald Trump as well as executives from Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google during his US trip, according to a person briefed on its details. His itinerary also may include stops in New York, Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he’ll meet with top movie industry executives, the person said on condition of anonymity because the plans aren’t final.
The crown prince will use the trip to promote investment opportunities in the biggest Arab economy, the person said.
Saudi Arabia has been warring for three years with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who the prince maintains are backed by predominantly Iran.
The Crown Prince said the rebels have launched missiles at his nation’s capital, Riyadh, and that the US wouldn’t tolerate comparable attacks on its cities from, for example, Mexico. Still, when asked to acknowledge the Yemeni death toll, the prince called the situation painful while shifting responsibility for it to the enemy.
“I hope that this militia ceases using the humanitarian situation to their advantage in order to draw sympathy from the international community,” he said, according to a transcript provided by CBS. “They block humanitarian aid in order to create famine and a humanitarian crisis.”
In the “60 Minutes” interview, Bin Salman touted his nation’s economy as being larger than that of Iran, dismissed that nation as a “rival,” and repeated a comparison he made last year between its ruling cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Adolf Hitler.
“He wants to create his own project in the Middle East,” he said. “Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realise how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don’t want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.”
Asked whether his country needed nuclear weapons to counter Iran, Bin Salman said, “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”
In further rebukes of Iran, he accused it of harbouring members of Al Qaeda, including a son of Osama bin Laden, and blamed that nation’s 1979 Islamic revolution for Saudi Arabia’s turn toward a more conservative interpretation of Islam that severely restricted the rights of women.
The Crown Prince promised that under his rule, women would be allowed to drive and work for equal pay.
“Saudi women still have not received their full rights,” the prince said. “There are rights stipulated in Islam that they still don’t have. We have come a very long way and have a short way to go.”
The prince also downplayed his fortune and lavish spending. “I’m a rich person and not a poor person. I’m not Gandhi or Mandela,” he said, adding that he spends at least 51 per cent of his personal income on charity. — Bloomberg
We have extremists who forbid mixing between the two sexes and are unable to differentiate between a man and a woman alone together and their being together in a work place. Many of those ideas contradict the way of life during the time of the holy Prophet.”
We were living a very normal life like the rest of the Gulf countries. Women were driving cars. There were movie theaters in Saudi Arabia. Women worked everywhere. We were just normal people developing like any other country in the world until the events of 1979.”
What (anticorruption purge) we did in Saudi Arabia was extremely necessary and legal. The idea is not to get money, but to punish the corrupt and send a clear signal that whoever engages in corrupt deals will face the law.”
As far as my private expenses, I’m a rich person and not a poor person. I’m not Gandhi or Mandela. But what I do as a person is to spend part of my personal income on charity. I spend at least 51 per cent on people and 49 on myself.”
We are all human beings and there is no difference.”