14 DAY TRIAL // The free hugs campaign was a big success in a lot of countries except Saudi Arabia. In this specific country the police declared hugs to be too intimate, more of an “exotic activity” and people hugging on the streets is from now on a banned activity.
A Saudi Arabian man was inspired by the free hugs campaign of another Arabic young man Bandr al-Swed, who posted the video of his campaign on YouTube.
Abdulrahman al-Khayyal decided to do his own street hugging event in Tahliya, one of the main shopping streets of Saudi Arabia. He went there with a friend and a placard saying “free hugs” after announcing it on Twitter, but couldn't see the plan to its end.
To their surprise, the two fellows got arrested and their “free hugs” banners seized by the religious police, according to CNN Arabic. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice accused the two for violating local laws and spreading “exotic practices.”
The young men were forced to abandon their plan and sign a pledge saying that they would never do that kind of thing again. Even if their plan did not work, al-Khayyal says that he is proud of what he did and that he plans on giving out free hugs even if their law bans it, according to The Independent.
The religious police of Saudi Arabia is one of the world's strictest law enforcement agencies, focused on enforcing the Muslim government's Sharia law, to stop any socializing actions between men and women, to enforce the Islamic dress code and dietary rules and ban any kind of activity that may seem “exotic.”
The extreme measures that the religious police took over the years have been harshly criticized but with no visible result. One of the worst cases in which the religious police took absurd measures to protect the Sharia law was in 2002 when fifteen girls died and other 50 were injured after being banned from exiting a burning school because they were not dressed appropriately and didn't have a male guardian.
After this, being arrested for free hugging doesn't seem so absurd. You can watch Bandr al-Swed's free hugging campaign in the video below:
