Saudi women should have choice to wear black abaya: Crown Prince

Women in Saudi Arabia do not need to wear headscarf or the black abaya as long as their attire is "decent and respectful". Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has said this in an interview to a US television news channel. With the new crown prince announcing a number of reforms - changes that have been hailed as proof of a progressive trend toward modernisation in the conservative Muslim kingdom - Saudi women now enjoy several rights they did not have earlier.

"The laws are very clear and stipulated in the laws of Sharia: that women wear decent, respectful clothing, like men. This, however, does not particularly specify a black abaya or a black head cover. The decision is entirely left for women to decide what type of decent and respectful attire she chooses to wear," Mohammad bin Salman told CBS News.

His words are significant, as this means women in Saudi Arabia may not need to cover their head in future as long as their attire is "decent and respectful".

Saudi Arabia requires women to wear the garment by law as of now.

The kingdom's religious leaders have not opposed his statement yet, just as in the previous instances when the young prince took decisions that made the country saw an expansion in women's rights.

Saudi Arabian women have been allowed to attend mixed public sporting events, and they will also enjoy the right to drive cars from this summer.

Earlier this year, senior cleric too had told a TV channel that Saudi women need not wear the abaya in public.

"More than 90 per cent of pious Muslim women in the Muslim world do not wear abayas," Shaikh Abdullah Al Mutlaq, a member of the Council of Senior



Scholars , the kingdom's highest religious body, had said, adding: "So we should not force people to wear abayas."