Saudi Religious Police Expel Men

from Festival for Being

'Too Handsome'

Previous related post:

"Tempting Eyes"

An annual culture festival in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh had to be stopped when a group of delegates from the United Arab Emirates were expelled for being too good-looking.

The National Festival for Heritage and Culture at Janadriyah, showcasing the cultures and traditions of Saudi Arabia, began on 3rd April 2013 at the outskirts of Riyadh and continues for 17 days. The festival is divided into men-only, women-only and family days. On the women-only days they have activities such as henna-etching and Arabic make-up displays which aren't there on the other days. After an opening ceremony, various events are held such as folk costumes, operetta, folk poetry, carpet-weaving, pottery-making, woodcarving, camel racing, horse racing and endurance. There are also displays by the armed forces, and displays of traditional swords and daggers. Arabian dancers and singers provide entertainment, while reviving all the traditional songs of different regions. I suppose it would be impolite to remind the Saudis of the oft-repeated verdicts of their Wahabi Muslim preachers, whom they gratuitously export to the Third World countries, that music is 'haraam' in Islam! Perhaps, there is no God but Crude Oil and US Dollar is the Prophet!

Emirates 24/7 reported that according to an official at the Janadriyah festival, three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds that they are too handsome and that the religious police officers, the mutaween, feared that the female visitors could fall for them. The “too handsome” Emiratis would unduly attract the lustful ardour of too many Saudi women, leading them to the sin of “fitna” or temptation!

Why didn’t the mutaweenjust ask the three offending “pretty” men to wear a full-face veil? After all the mutaweenhad ordered a Saudi woman in 2010 to cover up her “tempting eyes”! The fear of female sexuality has warped the minds of the Saudi Islamists!! Perhaps the mullahs and their mutaweenconsider a lust-crazed Saudi woman to be a much greater security threat than all the hostile Israeli war-planes put together!!!

The three handsome Emiratis were promptly deported to Abu Dhabi. Handsomeness is a National Security threat in Saudi Arabia! I am sure the three handsome Emiratis would be disappointed at not being able to attend the festival, but they would be able to brag in front of the women back in UAE: “Hey baby, my sex appeal is so great that it has become a National Security threat to Saudi Arabia!” I am sure the three handsome Emiratis deserve an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for the World’s Most Dangerous Sex Appeal! Dawood Ibrahim, from his ISI safe-house in Pakistan, might want to nominate this attractive trio as the next “Khans” to cavort with kaffir heroines in the Bollywood movies.

The UAE pavilion officials at Janadriyah festival has also been forced to clarify why a religious policeman stormed the stand. A statement from the UAE delegation said the Saudi religious officer’s attention was attracted by the presence of an Emirati female artist at the stand. This suggests that the Saudi religious police officials were upset by a mixing of the sexes at the event. Under Saudi custom and law, unrelated men and women are forbidden to interact. However, the female artist was not named.

Emirates 24/7 reported that Saeed Al Kaabi, Head of the UAE delegation to the festival, said in a statement that the female artists visit to the UAE stand was not included in the programme which was provided to the festival's management. Her presence was not previously arranged and that she had come to the UAE pavilion by “coincidence”.

Methinks that there is another aspect to this story. Homosexuality has grown so rampant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with severe sexual apartheid that even the religious authorities can't deny it and they are terrified. If homosexuality was not so widespread in Saudi Arabia there would be no need to ban “pretty” men, but in the peculiar world of Islam nobody takes responsibility for their own actions. It's always someone else's fault. There are reports that Western men, especially blonde men, find themselves sexually harassed by lusty Arab men especially in shopping centres in Saudi Arabia.

Reading the reports emanating from Saudi Arabia, one cannot help thinking that the Saudi religious policemen sit there thinking furiously on the ways to make the Saudis look like idiots and embarrass the rest of the Islamic ummah!

In India, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, General Secretary, All India Shia Muslim Personal Law Board, said: “Some Maulanas and Muftis seem bent becoming laughing stocks. They should act with more gravity". The learned Maulana fails to understand that the Maulanas and Muftis, in addition to the Saudi religious police, are merely exercising their Islamic right to make outrageously stupid statements!

Maulana Yasoob Abbas spoke in the context of the July 2010 Fatwa by Renowned Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, Deoband, against girls aged 13 and above riding bicycles! Mufti Arshad Faruqui, chairman of the Darul Uloom fatwa department, told reporters on Friday that the edict was in keeping with the ideals of Islam. He said: “When a grown-up girl goes cycling outside her house, it is bound to result in bepardagi [undue exposure of female skin]. Even medical science has given us evidence to believe that cycling is not good for adolescent girls, physically. Apart from affecting their femininity, it is harmful for their body structure.”

Pray, what does the evidence point to? Perhaps the learned Mufti is referring to the possibility of the hymen being ruptured! Aah! Then how will the sex-obsessed Mullahs determine a girl’s virginity, eh? In the Bedouin culture which views women as sex-slaves existing merely for the pleasure of men and for producing more and more babies, virginity is very highly prized. There is no way the Mullahs can let girls treat the sole “evidence” in a cavalier manner! But what does cycling do to “their body structure”? That is open to the wildest-of-wild Madrassa speculations.

Anyway, this prejudice against cycling is in line with the Saudi opposition to women drivers. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed behind the wheel. But it is also the place where Islam originated and the place where its followers have to turn to (Mekka) five times a day to pray.

A report reportedly prepared for the legislative assembly, or Shura Council, of Saudi Arabia has found that relaxing a ban on female drivers would mean the “end of virginity” in the country! This was reported by the BBC in December 2011. It is understood the report was drafted in an attempt by the Saudi religious elite to deter the king from reviewing the driving ban, which he has referred may happen as part of his reforms process.

Though there is no formal law on women driving in Saudi Arabia, if they get behind the wheel, they can be arrested. Women who are caught driving in Saudi Arabia are subject to corporal punishment. In September 2011, international outrage prompted King Abdullah to overturn the sentencing of Shaima Jastaniya, a 34-year-old who was to be lashed 10 times after she was caught driving in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, the Majlis al-Ifta al-Aala, has warned that women drivers would lead to a surge in sex, pornography, homosexuality and divorce!

The scholars, who collaborated with Kamal Subhi, a well-known former professor at the conservative King Fahd University, evidenced this “moral decline” by observing that in other Muslim countries where women are allowed to drive, the decline is already visible. Their report concludes that within 10 years of the ban on female drivers being repealed there would be “no more virgins” in the Islamic kingdom, London's Daily Telegraph reported.

Saudi women have mounted several campaigns to try to have the ban on women drivers overturned, the BBC reported. As part of his careful reform process, King Abdullah has allowed suggestions to surface that the ban on women drivers might be reviewed. A Saudi woman who has campaigned for women drivers told the BBC that the Head of the Shura had assured women campaigners that he was still open to hearing the case for lifting the ban on women drivers.

For the first time ever, a country which is notorious for its ultraconservative values has made an effort towards the relaxation of rules and regulations that have long suffocated a major chunk of its population. The women in Saudi Arabia may not have permission to drive cars, but the Saudi Government has now allowed women to ride motorbikes and bicycles. There are some restrictions though, some ifs and buts, which come along with the lifting of the ban.

1- The women can ride but only in recreational areas such as parks and playgrounds.
2- Like everything else in Saudi Arabia, a woman must bring along a ‘Mahram’, her husband or any unmarriageable kin.
3- A woman must wear proper Hijab, which means she should cover her hair and wear absolutely non-revealing clothes.
4- Women can ride but only for entertainment. They cannot use the permitted vehicles for either for transportation or any other serious purpose.
5- Places crowded with men must be avoided by women on their bikes. There are two reasons for this restriction; first is that if you have men around you, there are chances that you’ll be harassed. The other reason why women should avoid public places (with men) is that they can cause a lot of distraction!

Won’t this restricted riding motorbikes and bicycles in recreational areas by Saudi women lead to the “end of virginity” in the country as the Islamic clergy bewails? Won’t this restricted riding by Saudi women lead to surge in sex, pornography, homosexuality and divorce? Or will a 250 cc internal combustion engine revving loudly beneath a Saudi woman lead her to think that she can do without a man in her life?

Like I said earlier, the Islamic clergy has the absolute, inviolable and unfettered right to make the most ridiculous or ludicrous statements on any topic either under the blazing sun or the crescent moon!

Ref:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/457734/20130416/saudi-arabia-festival-men-expelled-handsome.htm
http://www.siasat.com/english/news/fatwa-against-girls-bicycle-riding
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/saudi-arabia/111203/women-drivers-end-virginity-saudi-arabia-repor
http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/28195-end-virginity-if-women-drive-saudi-cleric-warns.html
BBC News - 'End of virginity' if women drive, Saudi cleric warns
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16011926