In a bizarre incident a Saudi woman wearing a burka but she has not cover her hands was not allowed in a shopping mall in Saudi Arabia after a police officer branded her exposed hands as ‘indecent’.
Video footage of the incident, which took place in northwestern city of Hail, shows a bearded police men wearing a red headdress shouting at the woman and demanding her to leave. ‘Walk away… don’t say a word… Put on some gloves,’ he demands, as he refuses to let the woman enter into the shop.
The man is understood to be a member of Saudi’s police force – known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – which is notorious for imposing the country’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Officials from the Saudi religious police said that “we have launched an investigation into the incident, with Fahd Al Amer, a spokesman for the local branch, insisting he will ‘take the necessary measures based on the conclusions”.
There is also some discrepancy over the reason the the woman was barred from entering the shop, however, with some local media sources claiming the police officer initially approached the woman after receiving reports that she had been sitting unacceptably close to a male shopkeeper.
Saudi women are required to cover themselves from head to toe whenever they set foot outside their home, and also require permission from a male guardian if they want to work or marry.
The country’s religious police enforce the segregation of the sexes and it is made mandatory for a women to cover from head to toe when in public.