SAUDI ARABIA: PET CATS, DOGS BANNED IN PUBLIC IN RIYADH
(ANSAmed) - RIYADH, JULY 31 - Saudi Arabiàs religious police
have announced a ban on selling pet cats and dogs or exercising
them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them
as a means of making passes at women, an official said as
reported by Gulf news.
Othman al-Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of
Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the
Muttawa, told the Saudi edition of al-Hayat daily that the
commission has started enforcing an old religious edict. He said
the commission was implementing a decision taken a month ago by
the acting governor of the capital, Prince Sattam bin Abdul
Aziz, adding that it follows an old edict issued by the supreme
council of Saudi scholars.
The reason behind reinforcing the edict now was a rising
fashion among some men using pets in public "to make passes on
women and disturb families," he said, without giving more
details. Othman said that the commission has instructed its
offices in the capital to tell pet shops "to stop selling cats
and dogs". The 5,000-strong religious police oversees the
adherence to Wahabism. (ANSAmed).
2008-07-31 17:53