Dispatches from the Danger Zone: Too much Excitement in the Saudi Kingdom?

King Abdullah has told Saudi editors to cut back on publishing pictures of women… They could get men excited and lead them astray.

The king wasn’t talking about naked pictures, or half naked pictures or even bathing suit pictures –he was talking about any pictures of women doing anything, even digging ditches or scrubbing floors. 

Anyway, the king's order about photos of women went to newspaper editors at a meeting with them.   

Until now King Abdullah, who took over the throne in August, has been described as a “mild” reformer. Mild sounds right.

Recently Saudi newspapers have run a few pictures of women but only those wearing traditional Muslim headscarves, no bikinis, no naval rings.

The king told editors this week that publishing a woman's picture for the world to see was just wrong.

"Would they want their daughter, their sister, or their wife to appear in this way? 

“Of course, no one would accept this," the newspaper Okaz quoted Abdullah as saying.

"Youth are driven by emotion ... and sometimes they can be lead astray,” he said, and told editors to knock it off. 

Women are not allowed to drive or to vote or to run in municipal elections, the only type of election permitted in the kingdom.

The king also told editors to stop printing stories that portray the country in a negative light.

"Don't write anything that can be harmful to the country. Some reporters, they want to stand out and they end up going too far and this should not be allowed to happen," Abdullah said.

The king added that newspapers should ignore the foreign press, especially when what it publishes is "against Islam or against Arabs."

The king won’t have any trouble enforcing these rules as he and his family own and control all Saudi media.

The hypocrisy from this family and their state is so overwhelming as to leave me almost speechless, almost but not quite.

Half the people I know in Washington are very aware of the whore-mongering and boozing and drug taking of some of the Saudi royalty.  It is that legendary.

Also, this week's Danger Zone lineup is here.

Comments

[The Troll]

and this is are number one Ally besides the Jews in the ME...
be afraid be very afraid

[edmund]

to be fair I don't think a) Abdullah is persoally hypocritical or b) this would be against a reasonble level of reform, westerners don't like to admit this but Saudi Arabia's many big problems do not include lack of photos of scantily dressed ladies , I think stopping the relgious police beating up schoolgrils would be more beneficial