Thursday, April 25, 2013

Saudi Arabia seeking to prevent women from seeing handsome men: will we soon see unisex burqas?

There surely must be more to this story. Someone powerful must have wanted to get rid of these men, and I doubt that it had anything to do with their appearance.

But if male attractiveness becomes a real problem in the future, the religious police could simply hand out paper bags, with two holes to see through, to any men they deem excessively good looking. It would be cheap, and not as miserably hot as the heavy veils and clothing that women are forced to wear.


Saudi Arabia Reportedly Deports Men for Being ‘Too Handsome’
By Melissa Locker
Time
April 17, 2013

It’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem for three men who have reportedly been deported from Saudi Arabia for being “too handsome.”

The men were visiting Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates to attend the annual Jenadrivah Heritage & Cultural Festival in Riyadh. They were apparently minding their own business when members of Saudi Arabia’s religious police entered the pavilion and forcibly removed them from the festival. Their offense? They were considered “too handsome” to stay for fear that women would find them irresistible, according to the Arabic-language newspaper Elaph.

(MORE: Saudi Prince Backs Letting Women Drive)

“A festival official said the three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they are too handsome and that the Commission [for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice] members feared female visitors could fall for them,” Elaph reported this week, as quoted on the website Arabian Business. The Emirati men were subsequently deported to Abu Dhabi. In Saudi Arabia women are largely prohibited from interacting with unrelated males.

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