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Saudis bans sale of cats and dogs, saying men use them to make passes at women

Another ridiculous law from America’s worst ally. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports:

Saudi Arabia’s religious police have announced a ban on selling pet cats and dogs or exercising them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said yesterday.
Othman Al Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the Muttawa, told the Saudi edition of Al Hayat daily that the commission has started enforcing an old religious edict. He said the commission was implementing a decision taken a month ago by the acting governor of the capital, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz, adding that it follows an old edict issued by the supreme council of Saudi scholars.
The reason behind reinforcing the edict now was a rising fashion among some men using pets in public “to make passes on women and disturb families,” he said, without giving more details.

Tom GrossTom Gross is a former Middle East correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph and the New York Daily News.
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