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Saudi Arabia implements public decency code as it opens to tourists - Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...pens-to-tourists-idUSKBN1WD08B

Saudi KSA tourism policing law reform repression women gender

shared by Ed Webb on 28 Sep 19 - No Cached

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would issue fines for 19 offences related to public decency, such as immodest dress and public displays of affection, as the Muslim kingdom opens up to foreign tourists.
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a visa regime allowing holidaymakers from 49 states to visit one of the world’s most closed-off countries
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Violations listed on the new visa website also include littering, spitting, queue jumping, taking photographs and videos of people without permission and playing music at prayer times
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It said Saudi police had the sole responsibility for monitoring offences and imposing fines, a comment that appeared to marginalize the kingdom’s religious anti-vice squads whose authority to pursue suspects or make arrests was curbed in 2016.
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Alcohol remains illegal, which could deter some tourists. It also remains unclear if unmarried foreign men and women would be permitted to share a hotel room.
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there have been no moves towards opening up a system that has kept the ruling Al Saud family firmly in control of political power
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The authorities have detained women’s rights activists for the past year amid a broader crackdown on dissent. The crown prince’s image abroad has also been tarnished by last year’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, and a devastating war in Yemen
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vast tracts of desert but also verdant mountains, pristine beaches and historical sites including five UNESCO World Heritage Sites
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Jadaliyya - 0 views

www.jadaliyya.com/...to-Title-VI-Notice-on-UNC-Duke

US USA authoritarianism education censorship MENA middleeaststudies

shared by Ed Webb on 04 Oct 19 - No Cached

This is the first program to be hit with a gag order by the US government, but it likely will not be the last. Instead, this gag order hopes to stimulate a programmatic shift in the way all Middle East studies programs who utilize Title VI funds teach about the Middle East and Islam.
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As graduate students involved in the Duke-UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, we will not kowtow to the state—this state or any other. Our first preoccupation is critical thinking and academic freedom, which is integrally linked to the pursuit of justice. We reject the premise of this gag order and its underlying intentions. We stand against all forms of discrimination—racial, religious, gender, sexuality, class, age, ability, and otherwise—in particular as a result of state vision and rhetoric. We will not support imperialism, jingoism, and military hegemony, and we do not support the idea that these are necessary for maintaining peace in any nation, including the US.
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