At a recent meeting with newspaper editors, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who has previously been seen as a modernizer, asked that Saudi papers reverse their recent trend of publishing pictures of women. According to Reuters, newspapers have been including photographs of women, though all women shown were wearing headscarves with their faces visible.
The King reportedly commented to editors, “One must think, do they want their daughter, their sister, or their wife to appear in this way. Of course, no one would accept thisÉThe youth are driven by emotionÉand sometimes they can be led astray,” according to the Associated Press (AP). The AP reports that King Abdullah also asked editors to censor any stories that are critical of Saudi Arabia, a request that will not go ignored in a country where all media is subject to governmental control.
