Restaurants in Saudi Arabia will no longer need to maintain entrances segregated...
RIYADH - Restaurants in Saudi Arabia will no longer need to maintain entrances segregated by sex, the authorities said on Sunday, further eroding some of the world’s strictest social rules as sweeping reforms take hold.
Unrelated men and women have for decades been barred from mixing in public places under strict social rules once enforced by hardline clerics and the religious police. A spokesman for the ministry contacted by Reuters did not specify whether segregated seating areas inside restaurants would also be eliminated. The new rules are not compulsory, meaning restaurants could still maintain separate entrances if owners choose to do so, he said.
Social openness has been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent that has seen the arrests of dozens of clerics, intellectuals and activists, including women who had campaigned for some of the freedoms that have lately been granted.
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