Saudi religious figure Sheikh Ahmad al-Ghamidi has stoked debate in Saudi society and piqued interest in foreign observers of the Kingdom and advocates of women’s rights, by appearing on Saudi television with his wife to reiterate the acceptability of unveiled women in the eyes of Islam, according to media reports.
Al-Ghamidi appeared on “Badria,” a talk show hosted by the renowned Saudi media personality Badria al-Bishr on the MBC television channel, and “discussed a fatwa (religious edict) which he had issued previously, permitting women to show their faces and wear make-up,” Al Arabiya reports.
Al Arabiya notes that al-Ghamidi received threats and that “as expected, his views were not welcomed by some ultra-conservatives who opted, as was apparent on social media, to attack him rather than to argue with his religious argument which states that Islam doesn’t require women to cover their faces.”
However, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti disagreed with al-Ghamidi and said on Monday that Muslim women had a duty to wear full hijabs.
“There are those who said that it was all right for women to show their faces to strangers and that the veil is a social tradition, and not a religious order. This is wrong because covering the face is a religious obligation,” he said in remarks published by local news site Sabq. “Some brothers even took the step to show their wives in public. This is a very dangerous thing. We pray to God to guide them to the true path and help them repent. My message to Al Ghamdi is to fear God and to repent,” he said, according to Gulf News.
The segment, in Arabic, is viewable below.
