The Riyadh International Book Fair, which closes today, has become a symbol of subtle social change in Saudi Arabia, a show of openness to foreign cultures where men and women – unusually for the kingdom – mingle in the same space as they browse newly published works.
Now in its sixth year, it is billed as the Middle East’s largest annual cultural event. But when the information minister, the liberal Abdelaziz Khojah, opened the fair at the start of the month at an exhibition hall in the capital, a group of young bearded men stormed the venue.
They ordered women, each already covered from head to toe in a loose black abaya, to hide their figures even more and chastised them for having gone out in public in the first place. Picking on Mr Khojah too, they accused him of “westernising the country”.
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