Saudi Arabian women should not be forced to wear an abaya in public, says top cleric
Women have to wear the garment in the country by law, but this is the first time a senior cleric has made such a statement.
Women in Saudi Arabia should not be forced to wear the abaya – a loose-fitting robe – when they are in public, a senior cleric from the country’s highest religious body said, according toAFP.
“More than 90% of pious Muslim women in the Muslim world do not wear abayas,” Sheikh Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the council of senior scholars, said during a radio programme on Friday. “We should not force people to wear abayas.”
While Saudi Arabia requires women to wear the garment by law, this is the first time a senior cleric has made such a statement, the BBC reported. The government, however, has not yet said whether it is planning to change the law.
The cleric’s comments come at a time when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been introducing pro-women reforms. In January, the country allowed women to enter a football stadium for the first time to watch a game, and four months earlier, in September 2017, Saudi Arabia ended its ban on women driving.
