Skip to main content

SAUDI ARABIA APOLOGIZES FOR THE HALF NAKED FEMALE WRESTLERS.




Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi authorities apologized Saturday for videos with scantily clad female performers shown at a pro-wrestling event, highlighting the tension the ultraconservative kingdom faces in opening its society while respecting cultural and religious restrictions.



The promotional ad was aired between wrestling matches at the World Wrestling Entertainment Co.’s Greatest Royal Rumble, a pay-per-view, government-sanctioned event that Saudi authorities said was the first live wrestling event with women allowed to attend at ringside.

The audience’s men cheered as close-up clips of female wrestlers in skimpy outfits filled a big screen in King Abdullah Sports City stadium in Jeddah. The WWE event was broadcast on Saudi state television.

Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority, which sanctioned Friday’s event, issued a statement on Twitter apologizing for “the scenes of indecent women that featured in an ad before one of the matches.”

The authority said it would ensure such scenes didn’t appear in future events. “This is a commitment that the authority will be continuously vigilant about throughout all its different activities and events,” the Twitter message said in Arabic.

The WWE didn’t immediately provide a comment when contacted Saturday. The WWE typically has women wrestle in live matches, a popular part of its program in the U.S. and elsewhere. The company refrained from having women wrestle each other Friday night at the request of Saudi authorities, but the promotional ads depicted them.

John Cena, right, competes with Triple H during the World Wrestling Entertainment Greatest Royal Rumble event in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah on Friday.
Image: STRINGER/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY.

The controversy over the WWE video comes a week after the Saudi sports authority ordered a fitness center closed and a gym instructor fired after she appeared in a promotional video wearing form-fitting workout clothing.
The sports authority said then that it “affirms its efforts to stop any overstepping aimed at harming society and breeching its modesty.”

The incidents show how the kingdom’s cultural boundaries under Islamic law are difficult to ignore, even as its leadership tries to loosen up and create opportunities for a population that is 70% under the age of 30 years old.

The WWE matches were meant to show the strides Saudi Arabia is making in building an entertainment industry after decades of enforcing strict interpretations of Islam that included banning cinemas and limiting the mixing of genders in public.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old day-to-day ruler of the kingdom, has sought to soften the image of his country by opening movie theaters, planning futuristic new cities and giving rights to women. This year, women have been allowed to attend soccer matches for the first time in decades and will soon be allowed to drive.

Friday night’s event was the first time women were allowed to attend a live pro-wrestling event. Pro-wrestling has been a cult hit in Saudi Arabia, though female fans were often frowned on for enjoying a spectacle that involved half-naked men bashing each other.



The sports authority’s statement Saturday was likely a pre-emptive attempt to subdue any backlash against the WWE event. The Saudi government and he WWE said they signed a 10-year agreement to produce events in the kingdom.

SOURCE:

Comments

Post a Comment

POPULAR NEWS FROM THIS SITE:

CUBA CLAIMS CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER IS FIDEL CASTRO'S SON.

The suicide note left by Fidel Castro’s eldest son has rocked the Cuban nation this week, with the most astonishing revelation being the claim that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was his half-brother and the son of the late Fidel Castro. The handwritten note left by Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, 68, the eldest of Fidel Castro’s children, appears to confirm the longstanding rumor in Cuba that Fidel Castro fathered Justin Trudeau after a public tryst with Margaret Trudeau in 1970. “ Castro Diaz-Balart, who had been attended by a group of doctors for several months due to a state of profound depression, committed suicide this morning ,”  Cubadebate website reported. The death of the high-profile government nuclear scientist, also known as “Fidelito”, or Little Fidel, because of how much he looked like his father, stunned the nation, however it is his “ explosive ” suicide note that has set tongues wagging in Havana. Amid a wide-ranging barrage of compl...
21 comments
Read more

ZAMBIA TO BAN FOREIGNERS FROM OWNING LAND.

Zambian Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mrs.Jean Kapata. Image: LT. The Zambian government has proposed to ban the ownership of land by foreigners. The government is also seeking to review existing long term leases and the land in question cannot be disposed of, sold or exchanged without prior consultation with and approval by the government. In its draft policy unveiled by Lands Minister Jean Kapata, the government hopes to regulate access to land by non-Zambians. The state wants to restrict ownership of land, both state and customary to Zambians only. If the policy is adopted, it will only provide for sub-leasing and or renting of land only by non Zambians. This is the first comprehensive land policy framework since Zambia’s independence. To date, land policy was in form of Ministerial Statements in Parliament, Presidential pronouncements and the Administrative Circular No 1, 1985 that has guided the system of land allocation and the Lands ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WOMAN WHO HAD 44 CHILDREN BY 36 YEARS-OLD BANNED FROM HAVING MORE BABIES.

  Kampala, UGANDA: Mariam Nabatanzi had her first set of twins when she was just 13 and has since had another five sets, three sets of quads and four sets of triplets Mariam Nabatanzi suffers from a rare genetic condition and had given birth to 44 children by the age of 36. Tragically, Mariam has been left to raise her massive family alone after her husband walked out on her almost four years ago. Now 40, doctors have taken action to stop Mariam having more children after it emerged her father had 45 children with several different women. Mariam has three sets of quadruplets, four sets of triplets and six sets of twins and incredibly manages to care for and feed them all on her own. The fertile mum was just 12 when she was married to her husband, who at 40 was 28 years her senior. Just a year later she gave birth to her first set of twins. Now, she and all of her kids have no choice to live in appallingly cramped conditions in just four ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT DEADLY LISTERIOSIS.

CAPE TOWN: Thirty-six people have died in South Africa from an   outbreak of the food-borne disease listeriosis , the country’s Department of Health said on Tuesday. Cause Listeriosis is a serious but rare infection, mainly caused by eating food contaminated with the bacteria listeria monocytogenes which is found in soil, water and vegetation. It is usually present in raw milk and other dairy products. People usually contract it through animal products and fresh fruits and vegetables. Listeria can thrive in cold temperatures and the only way to kill these bacteria is cooking and pasteurisation. Symptoms of listeriosis The disease causes flu-like symptoms and can lead to nausea, diarrhoea, infection of the bloodstream and brain. Risk factors of listeria infection Pregnant women, the elderly or individuals with a weakened immune system, i.e. people in immuno-compromised status due to HIV/Aids, leukaemia, cancer, kidney transplant and steroid therapy, are ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ZIMBABWEAN SOLDIERS TRADE GUNS FOR GUITARS.

Harare, ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe National Army Mechanised Brigade Inkomo Barracks music outfit Crocodile Sounds on Friday night traded their guns for guitars as they launched their debut nine-track album, Garwe Rauya, at Old Hararians Sports Club in Harare. The guest of honour at the poorly-attended launch, chief-of-staff (administration) Paul Chima dismissed claims that the name Crocodile Sounds was associated with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also known as Ngwena. “The name Crocodile is apolitical as it resembles the emblem of Mechanised Brigade which is the crocodile. Most of you may think that we are saying Garwe Rauya because of the political situation that is attuning in the country,”  He said. The Mechanised Brigade played a critical role in the military takeover which saw the removal of former President Robert Mugabe in November last year with armoured vehicles rolled from Inkomo to Harare CBD on the day. Chima said the unveiling of the album ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ALBERT EINSTEIN'S PRIVATE DIARIES REVEAL HIS RACIST VIEWS.

Newly translated into English, Albert Einstein’s private travel diaries from the 1920s reveal that he was racist in his early life, especially toward Chinese people. The diaries were written between October 1922 and March 1923. In one entry Einstein wrote that the  “Chinese don’t sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods. All this occurs quietly and demurely. Even the children are spiritless and look obtuse.” Speaking about the “abundance of offspring” and the “fecundity” of the Chinese, he continued: “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.” Einstein also derided the people of Ceylon, which is now known as Sri Lanka. In Ceylon, he wrote, the locals “live in great filth and considerable stench at ground level,” before adding they “do little and need little. The simple economic cycle of life.” Einstein also gave his thou...
Post a Comment
Read more

NAMIBIA VOWS TO GRAB FARMS FROM WHITE FARMERS.

Okahandja, NAMIBIA: Vibrant rows of neatly lined plants grow on a patch once trampled by the cattle of a large commercial farm run by a family of German descent in Namibia. From that 2,400 square-meter rectangle of sand in the northern Otjozondjupa region, Kornelius Hamasab, 69, now produces spinach, onions and tomatoes. Hamasab is among the 16 percent of black Namibians owning arable land in the semi-desert southwest African nation. White Namibians, who are descended from former colonizers Germany and South Africa and make up six percent of the population, own 70 percent of the land. "It doesn't seem right to me,"  said Hamasab, who acquired his land as compensation five years after the farm downsized into a guesthouse in 2000 and laid off its staff. "The government should do something about it,"  he added, while his family picked and rinsed collared greens to be sold in the capital Windhoek, 150 kilometers away. Namibia adopted ...
3 comments
Read more

MINERS IN NAMIBIA DISCOVER SHIPWRECK LOADED $13 MILLION WORTH OF GOLD.

Image: Dieter Noli. Diamond miners working off the coast of Africa were beyond surprised when they discovered a 500-year-old shipwreck teeming with gold worth $13 million and other treasures. The ship, aptly named ‘Bom Jesus’ or ‘Good Jesus,’ was like a miracle to the miners. Bom Jesus was first identified and discovered by geologists working for the mining company De Beers in 2008. It was found off the coast of Namibia near Oranjemund. Image: Dieter Noli. According to experts, Bom Jesus is from the Golden era of Portuguese explorers who set sail in all directions in search of new lands to colonize. The ship left Lisbon in 1533 under the supervision of Sir Francisco de Noronha. But on its way to India, it mysteriously vanished. Before the discovery, the miners were draining an artificial salt lake. As the lake dried out, many lost ships were found at the bottom of the lake. Bom Jesus was among them, and it is considered the oldest of all ...
1 comment
Read more

THE HISTORIC HANDSHAKE BETWEEN KIM JONG UN & TRUMP.

SINGAPORE : President Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea shook hands at the start of their first face-to-face meeting Tuesday, a momentous step in an improbable courtship that has opened a new chapter for the world’s largest nuclear power and the most reclusive one. Tap To Watch The Video Below: Brash, impulsive leaders who only a few months ago taunted each other across a nuclear abyss, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim had set aside their threats in a gamble that for now, at least, personal diplomacy can overcome decades of distrust. In a carefully choreographed encounter, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim greeted each other in the red-carpeted reception area of a Singapore hotel built on the site of a British colonial outpost — the first time a sitting American president and North Korean leader have ever met. After photographs, the two men, alone except for their interpreters, were scheduled to meet privately to try to resolve the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear program. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHY CHINA'S DOG-MEAT MARKET HAS EXPANDED.

Every year during the summer solstice, a dog-eating festival takes place in Yulin, a city in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi. This year’s event ended with the usual controversy. Photographs of dogs being fried or treated cruelly went viral.  The Jinhua Hutou Dog Meat Festival, as it is called, was abruptly canceled last week. Animal-rights activists and American congressmen demanded that China ban the eating of dogs and cats, as Taiwan did in April. Yulin’s local government took modest steps to restrain or hide some of the more contentious activities, such as selling dogs in food markets. Still, the festival was packed. Why has the controversial culinary habit become so popular in China? Contrary to cliché, dog meat has not always been a common item in the Chinese diet.  Unlike in the West, eating dogs has never been taboo, but it appears to have been rare in the past. Government accounts single out butchers who sold dog meat, suggesting it ...
Post a Comment
Read more