A model who posted a video on Snapchat which showed her walking through a Saudi village in short skirts and a skimpy T-shirt was arrested by the police on Monday for “disrespecting and violating the teachings of Islam”.
According to news reports, the Saudi authorities issued an order for the model named only ‘Khuldoon’ after the video went viral on social media.
Saudi TV reported that the woman was arrested for dressing “indecently”.
In ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, women are expected to cover themselves from head to toe in loose fitting ‘abayas’.
The video shows the Saudi model walking around an empty historic fort in Ushaiager, a village north of the Saudi capital Riyadh.
AP reports that some Saudis did speak up for the detained woman. Saudi writer Waheed al-Ghamdi wrote on Twitter that though the model had violated the law of the land, her actions did not warrant such an outcry because she had harmed no one.
Others defending her posted images from US President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia with his family to suggest the Saudi model was no more “indecently” dressed. One Twitter user, whose post went viral superimposed an image of Trump’s daughter Ivanka on the Saudi woman’s body with to say, “Enough already, the situation has been solved”.
Watch the full video.