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| Saudi women shopping in Riyadh |
The violation of modesty might seem technical, but this was Saudi Arabia, and the religious police were having none of it.
They swept through Riyadh's Marina Mall, going through shops with names like "Princesses' Island" and "My Scarf" which specialise in abayas, the all-enveloping, shapeless gown that Saudi women must by law wear in public, and tore down any that weren't black.
Black is the colour stipulated for abayas, but as Saudi society has become more cosmopolitan, women have begun to experiment.
First dark patterns emerged, then a few diamante adornments, then the occasional striped sleeve; finally - the step the religious police thought was taking it too far - abayas of whole different colours, like brown, and dark blue.
The cloaks still hid every vestige of a woman's anatomy: only not in the same monotone.
"It was very annoying," said one shop assistant, who requested that he not be identified to prevent further raids. "They did cause a big problem. However, it is the law I suppose, so we just have to put up with it."
The attack on the Mall was not, women's rights and other activists say, a one-off. It happened shortly after the death of 90-year-old King Abdullah at the end of January, and may have been a sign that the once-feared religious police which he spent years trying to rein in felt they were now in the ascendant again. » | Richard Spencer, Riyadh | Thursday, February 19, 2015
