(MENAFN) Sheikh Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said that Saudi women should dress modestly, but this did not have to mean wearing the abaya, which is obligatory to wear by the law.
The cleric's intervention comes among initiations to "modernize" Saudi society and relax restriction on women.
"More than 90% of pious Muslim women in the Muslim world do not wear abayas. So we should not force people to wear abayas," Sheikh Mutlaq said on Friday making what is considered the first time a senior cleric has made such a statement, which may form the basis of Saudi law in the future.
It's worth mentioning that the ultra-conservative country detained a woman in 2016 for removing her abaya on a main street in the capital of Riyadh, Reuters news agency reported.
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