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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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57 Saudi Men Arrested for Flirting

Prosecutors say they exhibited 'bad' behavior to woo girls at malls

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(Newser) – Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested 57 young men accused of flirting with girls at shopping malls in Mecca, the BBC reports. Prosecutors say the men wore indecent clothing, played loud music, and danced to attract the girls’ attention. The arrests were prompted by Saudi’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which runs its powerful religious police.

The police force, known as the mutaween, enforces Wahhabism, Saudi’s strict brand of Islam. Officials, who’d earlier banned the sale of items related to Valentine’s Day, said they received reports of the men’s “bad” behavior at local malls, but guardians for some of the men insisted they’d socialize on weekends without ever violating laws that prohibit mingling of the sexes.

A Saudi man holds bouquets of red roses at a flower shop in the Saudi city of Dammam on February 13, 2008. True to tradition, Saudi Arabia's religious police are zealously enforcing a ban on Valentine's Day symbols in the austere Muslim kingdom. But in other Gulf Arab countries, celebrations...
A Saudi man holds bouquets of red roses at a flower shop in the Saudi city of Dammam on February 13, 2008. True to tradition, Saudi Arabia's religious police are zealously enforcing a ban on Valentine's...   (Getty Images)
A Saudi man speaks to a friend near lit trees. Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia have begun investigating 57 young men who were arrested on Thursday for flirting with girls at shopping centres in Mecca, the BBC reports. (HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images)
A Saudi man speaks to a friend near lit trees. Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia have begun investigating 57 young men who were arrested on Thursday for flirting with girls at shopping centres in Mecca, the...   (Getty Images)
In Saudi Arabia, unmarried men and women are not allowed to interact because of laws prohibiting mingling of the sexes, the BBC reports. (AFP PHOTO/HASSAN AMMAR)
In Saudi Arabia, unmarried men and women are not allowed to interact because of laws prohibiting mingling of the sexes, the BBC reports. (AFP PHOTO/HASSAN AMMAR)   (Getty Images)
An unidentified woman walks, fully veiled, along a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, street on Nov. 15, 2006. Powerful religious police in the kingdom long have had virtually unlimited authority to ensure women cover themselves and both sexes follow a strict moral code. But in the first case of its kind, three...
An unidentified woman walks, fully veiled, along a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, street on Nov. 15, 2006. Powerful religious police in the kingdom long have had virtually unlimited authority to ensure women cover...   (Associated Press)
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Islam • Saudi Arabia • Mecca • Wahhabism • Valentine's Day • religious police • gender segregation • flirting

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