Email

Saudi women must uncover faces for security checks, council says

File photo of veiled women browsing at the Riyadh Heritage and Culture Festival in Riyadh late April 24, 2009. REUTERS/Fahad Shadeed

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabian authorities have rejected a conservative proposal to allow women to keep their faces covered during security checks, local media reported on Tuesday.

File photo of veiled women browsing at the Riyadh Heritage and Culture Festival in Riyadh late April 24, 2009. REUTERS/Fahad Shadeed

A draft law would have allowed women to continue wearing veils during the checks, and would have required their identity cards to be based on fingerprints instead of photographs, the Saudi Gazette said.

The Shura Council, a consultative body appointed by the king, rejected the plan on Sunday, although it agreed that female security staff should carry out checks on women, the newspaper reported. It did not say who had proposed the law.

Under Wahhabism, the branch of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, men and women are largely segregated in public areas. Women need a male guardian’s permission to work, travel or open a bank account.

Under King Abdullah, the government has pressed for women to have better education and job opportunities, and will allow them to vote in future municipal elections. But conservative forces in the kingdom have continued to push back against reforms.

(Reporting by Amena Bakr; Editing by Pravin Char)

 

Related posts

International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas officials

The mausoleum holding Congo independence hero Lumumba’s gold-capped tooth is vandalized

Trump’s criminal conviction won’t stop him from getting security clearance as president