I have been trying to avoid writing about the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice lately because, frankly, why beat a dead horse? But this one is just too good to miss:
Saudi Arabia’s religious police have announced a ban on selling cats and dogs as pets, or walking them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said on Wednesday.
Now I’m not particularly a fan of cats and dogs. My friends who are pet owners know this, and they usually keep their pets away when I visit them. It’s not like I have anything against these animals but I just have this fear of getting too close to them. Still, this decision is just idiotic.
But before we get more into this, let’s go back a little bit. This whole ban thing has actually started in Jeddah two years ago. At the time, Jeddah’s Commission said that young Saudis who go out in streets with their pet dogs are violating of the Kingdom’s culture and traditions, and allegedly causing distress especially to families with young children. Interestingly, and luckily for my friend Rasheed who has since moved to Abu Dhabi, the ban has never implemented. “All pet stores are still selling cats and dogs,” one pet owner told Arab News.
However, although Riyadh and Jeddah are two big cities in the same country, they can be quite different on matters like these. The Commission is much, much more powerful in Riyadh than in Jeddah and therefore I expect this ban to be fully implemented in the capital.
Of course it is needless to say how ridiculous this whole thing is. The reason the Commission presented for the ban is kind of a joke, really: “because of men using them as a means of making passes at women,” they said. So you go and ban dogs and cats? How about punishing those so-called men? I guess you are too busy invading people’s privacy and controlling their lives to bother with few men who use their pets to annoy others.
Related:
- My friend Grace notes the different takes between Saudi and American media.
Saudi Jeans 
Yay for banning dogs!!!
Nay for banning cats!!!
Smith is a cat lover.
Hello there. Found this blog while searching for Saudi bloggers. Interesting blog. Definitely gonna keep an eye on it. Still, I don’t think you wanna talk about ‘beating dead horses’. One might think you’re trying to pick up girls. NO PETS PEOPLE. *Sigh
lool Sorry man but I think it’s funny! Thank God they don’t get to do much of their ridiculous actions around Jeddah as they do in Riyadh. They do however annoy us occasionally.
Guys and even girls for that matter are walking their dogs and cats in many places. It’s even become a trend of some sort a while ago. True, a lot of guys do use the pets as “means of making passes at women” but hey, it’s not a reason to BAN selling these pets! Hopefully reason will prevail and this stupid decision will not be enforced.
“Cut the hand of evil” policy is getting ridiculous, who can stop those people?
I simply can’t believe that those people sole purpose is to prevent Saudi people from having a one night stand, with the help of Mr.Kitty
It’s a bigger issue here people, those really stupid music channels “Is it music?”, the difficulties facing the young Saudi’s to get married
the complicated and ridiculous system of sponsoring small business’s, the unbelievable corruption in our system, and our double standard values
But NOOO!!!
they see something wrong in having a pet
well done gentlemen
do you feel good? do you feel a little tickle in your buddy??….that’s faith.
“God can’t help those who can’t help them selves”
say… I should have my own bolg
I like it
THX man love your blog
that is just plain crazy.. im sorry ppl and no offense to those in favor of the ban.. oh or to the women that had been haressed by pets owners LOL…
A few things will happen from this.
1) A black market for dogs and cats will occur.
2) People will start adopting strays from the street.
3) Everyone starts buying parrots and starts talking like a pirate.
I am hoping for number 3. How cool would it to see Saudi youth with trained parrots being able to say their number.
Next, Banning life !
There is an old proverb that says : “inhibition yields to eruption”
And not only this “edict” is not reasonable but also it increases the gap that already exists between the commission and the people.
“Banning” is not the ideal sentence…”enlightenment” is
I can attest that, thanks to my dog I have been able to chat up many nice men… :)
and as far as the not-nice-men go: my dog is always ready to snap off some unneeded body-parts. :D
Owning a dog is brilliant.
Except for the shedding of hairs…
And because pets are nice, and fun, the Commision for the Promotion of Vice and the Prevention of Virtue want to ban them.
All other problems, like Saleh,damnan mentioned, are conductive to suffering and therefore ok.
i dunt know why all of a sudden i have this un-explained need to buy a dog !!! right now !
i would like to see people walking cats in a leash in some park ,, hey did they say anything about ducks and chimps ! are those ok !??
Really,,,,,do the saudis, who can buy marriages, need animals to attract the opposite sex. )( Yeah Yeah Yea you are right you’r right because they are sexually frustrated. Atleast it is better than getting s**t on your pe**s…..i.e homosexuality,,,,,,,,,,Which is by the way a big issue in K.S.A…………but Saudis dont want to talk about it.
But laws like this are urgently needed because this is what happens when the decision makers just keep on h**ping women/boys, overeating, ignoring social issues,relying on cheap slave labour and thinking with your sexual organs for 3 decades. OOps sorry came out too strong………..what I really mean is the sudden(30 yrs is no time on history time scale) influx of wealth was not handled …..hmm actually invested(yea a better word) in all aspects and levels of the society.
Thank You………
jst an opinion based on real life experiences over a period of 2 decades
I am getting the feeling that SA has just taken another few pegs downward on the modern society scale. What’s next? Ban lovebirds because the name of the species promotes vice between male and female?
Wait, I don’t want to give anyone any ideas…
How can your country and it’s people ever expect to be respected and taken seriously as long as you continue to let this sort of thing go on?? Your treated like children. When are you people going to grow some “balls” and stand up to this sort of mindless tyrany??
how about doing something about stray cats and dogs which bother people constantly at their homes, not to mention spreading unknown diseases to the public rather than getting worked up over a personal hobby?
if they wanted to truly do good to the citizens of this sacred grounds as they prefer calling it, then I suggest they try dealing with more pressing matters rather than keep on sticking their nose in every single little matter.
death to the hai’ah
amen
Saudis are not pet-lovers anyway. But I honestly don’t have the slightest idea how this ‘religious police’ came up with this whole ban thingy. I mean, seriously, don’t they have better things to do.
Besides, the “reason” they provided was simply, hilariously, ridiculous. They shouldn’t have bothered to present such stupid explanations. They could’ve just gone along in their “holy” mission of controlling people’s lives and snatching away their rights. Afterall, isn’t this what they’re really good at?
All of you in Riyadh should check out the pet store “Joon” before they close it down! It’s close to King Faisal Specialist Hospital and it’s unlike any pet store I’ve seen anywhere in the world.
Another reason why the Mutawwa are banning dogs might be because they are quasi-haram, right? I thought that if you got dog slobber on your hands, you have to wash seven times, but Ahmed may be able to confirm this.
It’s so sad. As the saying goes, dogs are man’s best friend….
I guess somebody in the Commission happened to watch “101 Dalmatians” and was deeply shocked.
Here we go again..Whenever the Commissions wants to solve a problem they think “Why Not BAN It?”…Well..Then Ban everything and live a life of a cave man!!!…Ban TV Ban Mobile Ban PC Ban Malls Ban Restuarant Ban KSA!!!
So stupid excuse!! Couldn’t they find any better excuses for God’s sake!!
Since it’s a way of harrassing wome, then stop those so-called men not their pets!!!
A friend of mine who studies in UAE told me that Emirians are really strict when it comes to flirting with girls and they do have strict and merciless rules about it!! Those who flirt are taken to prison or are forced to pay a fan. Moreover, their pics are to be displayed in shopping malls and newspapers.
If guys are so stupid using innocent animals as a cover for some psychological problems, punishment and treatment must be enforced to them!!
I am not a pet lover though I don’t hate them or anything else but I am just using my reason!!
“The Commission is much, much more powerful in Riyadh than in Jeddah”
knock on wood :p
The fact of the matter is that the people of Saudi Arabia are treated like dogs and cats by their government! In fact dogs and cats have MORE freedom of expression than the citizens lol.
:)
next, banning men from entering Saudi right? :)
whoever said “its a girls world” obviously lived in Saudi.
*sarcasm intended ;)
hmmm, what was in their coffee when they put that into writing??! :)
all pets could wear pet hijab while out in public so people could not see how cute they are and would not be tempted to pet them!
if fact the religious police in Saudi should require all pets and animals to wear hijab in public not just because the pets are cute, but their genitals hang out in plain view!
the religious police should also be required to wear full hijab in public just in case the people of Saudi arabia find them too cute to resist and may want to pet them too.
pet hijab is good concept.
Now Saudi Arabia has one more thing in common with Iran, did you know that this rule is strictly inforced by the Iranian Islamic government!! And for the same reason, it attaracts attention.
When the Islamic government came into power they went door to door poisoning dogs in peoples yards, these are people of different racial groups, and religons…from Armenians to Europeans, they would find their dogs sick and dead in their yards.
I had allot of interest in this topic of dogs as Najes..but once I looked into it, I found so much should I say “crap” that conflicted with reality. It turns out that dogs who were black were first considered evil, relating them to hyenas, yes hyenas. Hyenas were many during and well before the time of the profit, and many dogs were cross breed with hyenas,coyotes, and wolves. The dogs of the time were many times attacked or even part hyenas, making them dangrous, diseased, and scary. Allot of research has pointed out these reason for dogs being banned in Islam, even cave remains from across Jordan,the gulf, and Iraq.
plenty of Hadiths out there that really shin a light on this belief, it’s misuse, and irregularity. It’s amazing how little things make sense the more you look into them, so many statements, and we choose to hear only a few.
Everything has a begining some where, and rarely do people care to even go far enough to see the truth, where it started, and how it all morphed.
Saudi’s don’t have balls to stand up to anyone or anything..only Sauid jeans maybe:)
Nooo amount of money, oil, or U.S. protection will earn your people respect when your people even feel threatened by little dogs and cats….
People might shake your hands, and give you props for being so kind to the rest of the world for providing us with oil, and closed minded fundamentalists..but behind your backs they mumble and laugh at your backwardness…
It’s better that your all protected from scary little animals, and everything else, because you fear everything and anything without ANY self control like little children..
Poor Commission guys. Don’t they have more to do except have the SEX on their minds? They poke their nose where they should not, As part of their Islamic duty, why don’t they go to the Labor Courts and get justice for the poor people. Or why not they do not pull up the governemnt officials who are not found in their seats during their office timings at 7.30 in the morning. The Commission guys can do many other good jobs, but sick minded people they are, and the government is also damn scared of them.
Sale of pet in Saudi Arabia
Dear readers
The true Islam respects Cats, Dogs and all other animals. Prophet Mohammed (Peace and blessing of Allah be up on him) told a story of a man who received Paradise, The man was thirsty amid the desert, then saw a small well, he got down to the well and drank water, when he returned he saw a starving dog. He remembered his situation just few minutes before, then he again got down to the well, carried some water in his shoe and given it to that thirsty dog. The other story was of women who tied, tortured and let a cat to die of hungry who will go to hell. Listeners asked “ O Prophet, will we be rewarded from Allah over Four legged animals too, he replied, yes.
Like human life, animals life too sacred in Islam. Once, Prophet asked to put off the fire, when he saw ants passing by. In another occasion he asked a person who ill-treated his camel, don’t you fear Allah over this animal.
Prophet (Peace and blessing of Allah be up on him) has directed the people neither scolds nor curses the animals.
Here we should take care that, if we are having a pet animal we are not spending time and care for them to such an extent that we does not have time For other important activities like remembering God, helping poor and needy people, Undertaking family responsibilities and doing all other good deeds.
I feel fostering a pet is not good in the following cases.
1.When he can enjoy the presents of pet but cannot look after the welfare of it.
2. He use the pet for indecent activities like making pass on women and it disturbs families etc…
3.When he devotes his valuable time towards his pet forgetting all his other responsibility.
It’s really interesting how people like you , who have nothing to do except commenting on others, writing a very superficial time wasting blog ends with ” jeans”,following western life style without having a clue about your religion and history, talk about “Haya’a”, and calling them dead horse, who is the life one ” you ” ??, why don’t you get a real life doing something useful to the community, if you just know that without “Haya’a”, your close girl relatives might be attacked in the streets, but what do you know, go get some starbucks and listen to your Ipod, and leave decent people do their decent job.
I am more concerned with hearing from any person or group helping (feeding etc) stray cats and dogs in Saudi, with a view to helping them from the U.K..