Public Decency Law in Saudi Arabia is a set of rules issued in September 2019 by the government of Saudi Arabia to ensure that citizens and tourists are aware of the rules related to the public decency and are in compliance with Saudi law. [1]
The Saudi Arabian society was generally in compliance with unwritten rules of public decency that was commonly defined by their traditions. However, after the introduction of the tourist visa that allows tourists to spend up to 90 days in the country, rules related to public decency were formally approved to ensure that visitors and tourists in Saudi Arabia are aware of public decency. [2]
The new rules were approved by the Saudi's Minister of Interior which identify 19 offenses including littering, taking photographs and videos of people without permission, immodest dress and queue jumping. [3]
Public behavior that is not consistent with local culture should be avoided, such as public displays of affection and using profane language or gestures. [4]
Men and women are required to wear a modest dress that is not tight or fitting. [4]
The rules state that during prayer time, music is turned off in public places. Moreover, during this time shops are closed for a short time. The rulers also state that in Ramadan where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, it is respectful to avoid eating or drinking in public during the day at this time. [4]
It is illegal to sell, purchase, or consume alcohol in Saudi Arabia. Bringing alcohol or drugs into the country is also prohibited. [4]
The political system of Qatar is a de facto absolute monarchy with the Emir of Qatar as head of state and head of government. Under the 2003 constitutional referendum it should be a constitutional monarchy with an elected legislature, although elections have been consistently pushed back since 2013. Sharia law is a main source of Qatari legislation. Qatar is not a democracy.
Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and bicycles. Permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met and drivers are required to follow the established road and traffic laws in the location they are driving. The word driving, has etymology dating back to the 15th century and has developed as what driving has encompassed has changed from working animals in the 15th to automobiles in 1888. Driving skills have also developed since the 15th century with physical, mental and safety skills being required to drive. This evolution of the skills required to drive have been accompanied by the introduction of driving laws which relate to not only the driver but the driveability of a car.
Indecent exposure is an expression that describes the deliberate public exposure by a person of a portion of their body in a manner contrary to local standards of appropriate behavior. Laws and social attitudes regarding indecent exposure vary significantly in different countries. It ranges from outright prohibition to prohibition of exposure of certain body parts, such as the genital area, buttocks or breasts.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. Non-Muslims must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination and deportation. It has been stated that no law requires all citizens to be Muslim, but also that non-Muslims are not allowed to have (gain?) Saudi citizenship. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim, and conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy and punishable by death. Blasphemy against Sunni Islam is also punishable by death, but the more common penalty is a long prison sentence. According to the U.S. Department of State's 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom, there have been 'no confirmed reports of executions for either apostasy or blasphemy' between 1913 and 2013.
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country in Western Asia. It spans the vast majority of the Arabian Peninsula, with a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km2 (830,000 sq mi). Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East, and the second-largest country in the Arab world. It is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south; it is separated from Egypt and Israel in the north-west by the Gulf of Aqaba. Saudi Arabia is the only country with a coastline along both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert, lowland, steppe and mountains.
The cultural setting of Saudi Arabia is greatly influenced by the Arab and Islamic culture. The society is in general deeply religious, conservative, traditional, and family-oriented. Many attitudes and traditions are centuries-old, derived from Arab civilization and Islamic heritage. However, its culture has also been affected by rapid change, as the country was transformed from an impoverished nomadic society into a rich commodity producer in just a few years in the 1970s. This change has also been affected by a number of factors including the communications revolution and external scholarships. The most recent ruler or king of Saudi is King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, is a Saudi government religious authority charged with implementing the Islamic doctrine of hisbah. It traces its modern origin to a revival of the pre-modern official function of muhtasib by the first Saudi state (1745–1818). The committee was established in 1976 in its current form, with the main goal of supervising markets and public morality. It has been assisted by volunteers, and often described as Islamic religious police.
Clothing laws vary considerably around the world. In most countries, there are no laws which prescribe what clothing is required to be worn. However, the community standards of clothing are set indirectly by way of prosecution of those who wear something that is not socially approved. Those people who wear insufficient clothing can be prosecuted in many countries under various offences termed indecent exposure, public indecency or other descriptions. Generally, these offences do not themselves define what is and what is not acceptable clothing to constitute the offence, and leave it to a judge to determine in each case.
A tobacco fatwa is a fatwa that prohibits the usage of tobacco by Muslims. All contemporary rulings condemn smoking as potentially harmful or prohibit (haram) smoking outright as a result of the severe health damage that it causes. Arab Muslims tend to prohibit smoking and, in South Asia, smoking tends to be considered lawful but discouraged.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Saudi Arabia. The country performed at least 158 executions in 2015, at least 154 in 2016, at least 146 in 2017, 149 executions in 2018, 184 executions in 2019, and 27 executions in 2020, which is a drastic reduction due to a moratorium on death penalties for drug-related offenses.
The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority is one of the eleven public safety agencies under the Secretariat of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the Commonwealth. The agency administers the state's ABC laws with an emphasis on public service and a focus on protecting citizens by ensuring a safe, orderly and regulated system for convenient distribution and responsible consumption of alcohol.
Saudi Arabia is the second biggest tourist destination in the Middle East with over 16 million visiting in 2017. Although most tourism in Saudi Arabia still largely involves religious pilgrimages, there is growth in the leisure tourism sector. As the tourism sector has been largely boosted lately, the sector is expected to be the white oil for Saudi Arabia. This is proved as tourism sector is expected to generate $25 billion in 2019. Potential tourist areas include the Hijaz and Sarawat Mountains, Red Sea diving and a number of ancient ruins.
During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, women's rights in Saudi Arabia have been limited in comparison to the rights of women in many of its neighboring countries due to Saudi Arabia's wahabi interpretation of sharia law. However, since Mohammed bin Salman was appointed Crown Prince in 2017, a series of social reforms have been witnessed regarding women's rights. The World Economic Forum's 2016 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 141 out of 144 countries for gender parity, down from 134 out of 145 in 2015. The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected Saudi Arabia to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for 2018–2022, in a move that was widely criticised by the international community. Women in Saudi Arabia constituted 34.4% of the native workforce as of 2019, ahead from 13% of the country's native workforce in 2015.
Islamic religious police is an official vice squad which enforces religious observance and public morality on behalf of national or regional authorities based on its interpretation of sharia. The practice is generally justified with reference to the doctrine of hisba, which is based on the Quranic injunction of enjoining good and forbidding evil, and refers to the duty of Muslims to promote moral rectitude and intervene when another Muslim is acting wrongly. In pre-modern Islam, its legal implementation was entrusted to a public official called muhtasib, who was charged with preventing fraud, disturbance of public order and infractions against public morality. The office was revived in Saudi Arabia, and later instituted as a committee, aided by a volunteer force focused on enforcing religious observance. Similar institutions later appeared in several other countries and regions. Powers and responsibilities of Islamic religious police have varied from country to country, with the latter commonly including enforcing Islamic dress code and prayer attendance, as well as preventing consumption of alcohol and public display of affection.
The legal system of Saudi Arabia is based on Sharia, Islamic law derived from the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The sources of Sharia also include Islamic scholarly consensus developed after Muhammad's death. Its interpretation by judges in Saudi Arabia is influenced by the medieval texts of the literalist Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence. Uniquely in the Muslim world, Sharia has been adopted by Saudi Arabia in an uncodified form. This, and the lack of judicial precedent, has resulted in considerable uncertainty in the scope and content of the country's laws. The government therefore announced its intention to codify Sharia in 2010, and, in 2018, a sourcebook of legal principles and precedents was published by the Saudi government. Sharia has also been supplemented by regulations issued by royal decree covering modern issues such as intellectual property and corporate law. Nevertheless, Sharia remains the primary source of law, especially in areas such as criminal, family, commercial and contract law, and the Qur'an and the Sunnah are declared to be the country's constitution. In the areas of land and energy law the extensive proprietorial rights of the Saudi state constitute a significant feature.
Various codes of etiquette in Indonesia govern the expectations of social behavior in the country and are considered very important. Etiquette demonstrates respect and is a key factor in social interactions. Like many social cultures, etiquette varies greatly depending on one's status relative to the person in question. Some conventions may be region-pecific, and thus may not exist in all regions of Indonesia. The following are generally accepted contemporary customs in Indonesia.
The Ministry of Health, commonly abbreviated to MOH, is the ministry overseeing the health care and health policy of Saudi Arabia. The ministry is tasked with formulating strategies to ensure public health in the country, while also managing crucial health infrastructure.
Visitors to Saudi Arabia must obtain a visa unless they come from one of the visa exempt countries. Some visitors are eligible to obtain a visa online or on arrival while others needs to apply at one of the Saudi diplomatic missions in advance.
It is thought that in Saudi Arabia it is socially acceptable to hit women or children to discipline them, and while yes, the older generations do hit children and some of them may hit women, the current generations are growing out of the habit of hitting children to discipline them, knowing that it can cause problems to the child currently and in their future, but hitting women is considered by most of the next generations taboo, unethical and inhuman.
Saudi Arabian media often attacks Jews in books, news articles, and mosques with what some describe as anti-Semitic satire. Saudi Arabian government officials and state religious leaders often promote the idea that Jews are conspiring to take over the entire world; as proof of their claims, they publish and frequently cite The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as factual.