Saudi Police Release Miniskirt Girl After Hours of Questioning

Saudi Arabian authorities have reportedly decided to release the young woman who challenged its strict dress code by walking through a historic site wearing a miniskirt and crop top but only after questioning her for hours and determining she did not realize she was being videotaped for YouTube.

The woman was taken into custody by the religious police for her act of defiance over the weekend and released on Tuesday evening. Saudi Islamic law requires women to be completely covered in public despite blistering local temperatures. The woman said she complied with the rules requiring a legal male guardian to accompany her.

Fox News reports that opinion on the YouTube video of the woman, known as “Khulood the Model,” was divided on Saudi social media. Some demanded punishment and warned of “chaos” if she was allowed to get away with violating the female dress code, while others cited the liberalizing influence of youthful new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and said it was time for the Kingdom to update its laws. Some in the latter camp noted that visiting female dignitaries such as President Donald Trump’s wife and daughter were permitted to appear in public without head coverings.

Saudi-watchers can now busy themselves with reading the tea leaves from Khulood’s release without charges. As CNN observes, she chose a significant location for her act of defiance: the historic city of Ushayqir, which is regarded as the birthplace of Saudi Arabia’s ultra-strict Wahhabi school of Islam. The statement from the religious police bluntly described her as “the girl in offensive clothing,” so the stricter elements of Saudi society will probably be angered that she skated away from such an open-and-shut case of immodest dress.

Another interesting observation from the CNN report is that a 2016 directive stripped the religious police, known as the Haia or Mutawaa, of the power to make arrest themselves – they can only report offenders to the regular police and have no recourse if the police decide not to press charges. Furthermore, the Haia were instructed to act “kindly and gently” as they “carry out the duties of encouraging virtue and forbidding vice.”