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

MALARIA VACCINE PROVES HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IN BURKINA FASO.

A vaccine against malaria has been shown to be highly effective in trials in Africa, holding out the real possibility of slashing the death toll of a disease that kills 400,000 mostly small children every year. The vaccine, developed by scientists at the Jenner Institute of Oxford University, showed up to 77% efficacy in a trial of 450 children in Burkina Faso over 12 months. The hunt for a malaria vaccine has been going on the best part of a century. One, the Mosquirix vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline, has been through lengthy clinical trials but is only partially effective, preventing 39% of malaria cases and 29% of severe malaria cases among small children in Africa over four years. It is being piloted by the World  Health  Organization in parts of Kenya, Ghana and Malawi. The Oxford vaccine is the first to meet the WHO goal of 75% efficacy against the mosquito-borne parasite disease. Larger trials are now beginning, involving 4,800 children in four countries. Prof ...
Post a Comment
Read more

"TOO MANY ZIMBABWEANS WAS THE PROBLEM", NAMIBIA OPPOSITION PARTY CLAIMS.

Windhoek, NAMIBIA: The Namibian opposition party blasted the SADC observer mission led by Zimbabwe defence  Minister Oppah Muchinguri saying what were they supposed to expect from someone who rigs elections in her own country. The SADC mission headed by Zimbabwean Minister of Defence and war veteran Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri who is represented the chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, President Emmerson Mnangagwa. There were 53 SADC election observers in Namibia. Democracy and Progress’s Mike Kavekotora spoke to the Namibian and said: "The SADC observer mission was loaded with a lot of people from Zimbabwe. What do we expect from somebody who was coming from a rigged election in his or her own country?  How do you expect that person to come and give you a proper observation in another country? That’s just not on. We consider this matter to be very serious. As I said we’re going to engage the other political parties and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE UN MAY NOT HAVE MONEY FOR STAFF SALARIES NEXT MONTH.

New York, U.S: The United Nations may not have enough money for staff salaries next month if member states don’t pay what they owe, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday. He told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly’s budget committee that if he had not worked since January to cut spending then “we would not have had the liquidity to support” the annual gathering of world leaders last month. “This month, we will reach the deepest deficit of the decade. We risk ... entering November without enough cash to cover payrolls,”  said Guterres.  “Our work and our reforms are at risk.” The United States is the largest contributor - responsible for 22 percent of the more than $3.3 billion regular budget for 2019, which pays for work including political, humanitarian, disarmament, economic and social affairs and communications. Washington owes some $381 million for prior regular budgets and $674 million for the 2019 regular budget. The U.S. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

INNOCENT WORDS THAT SOUNDS COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES.

This article was originally published by: 'THE LANGUAGE NERDS' When you speak more than one language, you realize that words mean different things in different languages. Sometimes an innocent word in a language can sound really bad in another, and that’s where the real fun is.  Below are some words that are completely innocuous in their native language but sound downright inappropriate and rude to the ears of speakers of other languages; Die If you don’t speak Dutch, this commercial may seem terrifying. For a Dutch speaker, it simply means “Mom, that one, that one, that one.” Bico In Brazilian Portuguese, the word “bico” means a small or casual job. In Portuguese (the one spoken in Portugal), however, it has an unexpected meaning: “blowjob”! There is this Brazillian guy who recently came to Portugal and went to a job interview where he was asked about the kind of jobs he was doing in Brazil. His reply was something like “nothing speci...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 NAMIBIAN MINISTERS RESIGN OVER FISHING INDUSTRY CORRUPTION SCANDAL.

Windhoek, NAMIBIA: Two Namibian ministers resigned on Wednesday following reports accusing them of corruption in a deal involving Iceland’s biggest fishing firm, Samherji, the presidency said. Justice Minister Sackeus Shanghala and Fisheries Minister Bernard Esau are accused of taking bribes to award horse mackerel quotas to Samherji, according to media reports in Namibia and Iceland which cite documents published by Wikileaks. WikiLeak’s website  shows that the data leakage includes thousands of documents – e-mails, internal reports, spreadsheets, presentations and photos – related to Samherji. This is the first of two batches of documents, containing information about the company. The second batch of documents will be released in two to three weeks. According to the WikiLeak’s website, the documents “expose how the company spent millions of dollars in pay-offs to senior Namibian officials and politicians in order to ensure growing and continued access to the coun...
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSENAL STRIKER, PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG MAY NOT PLAY FOR GABON AGAIN.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang may not play for Gabon again following a row with the country's football association, new coach Daniel Cousin has told RMC. Gabon captain Aubameyang reacted angrily when the Gabon Football Federation announced that his father, Pierre Francois, would be co-coach, claiming they had done so the day before he had said he would give his decision on the offer. Pierre-Emerick Emiliano François Aubameyang born on 18 June 1989 is a Gabonese professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Premier League club Arsenal captains the Gabonese national team. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has criticised the country's football federation (FEGAFOOT) after they appointed his father as national team coach and said Pierre Francois did not want the job. Pierre François Aubameyang "Yaya" is a Gabonese international footballer. He also holds French passport. He is the father of Catilina, Willy and Pierre-Emerick. He won 80 caps for the...
1 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

SOUTH AFRICAN EFF LEADER COMPARES BLACK PEOPLE WHO CELEBRATE WORLD RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP TO CONGREGANTS WHO DRANK PETROL.

Johannesburg, S. AFRICA: The EFF spokesperson says South Africans must 'stop living a lie' when it comes to racial unity. Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi stuck to his guns regarding tweets about the Springboks' Rugby World Cup victory which have been met with criticism and controversy, in an eNCA interview. After discussing the expulsion of former EFF member Lungile Gabuza from the party, Ndlozi was asked about his recent tweets on the Springboks' World Cup victory. Ndlozi laughed when he was brought up, and then gave his thoughts at length.  “We have probably been very misunderstood, we admire the type of black excellence that has been demonstrated by the black players in that white-dominated sport in South Africa, the white-dominated team. "We celebrate them on the basis that it's black excellence like we do black people who do exceptionally well."  However, Ndlozi added: "There is a pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

SAUDI ARABIA PURCHASES DRONES FROM ISRAEL THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA.

Saudi political analyst called “Mujtahid” and who is well known for leaking exclusive information about the Saudi royal family via social media has exposed that Saudi Arabia is buying drones from Israel through South Africa. According to the twitterwhistleblower, Saudi Arabia had announced that it is building a drone plant in cooperation with South Africa, but that is only a guise to hide the clandestine purchases of aircraft from Israel. Tweeting about the scandals of the Saudi royal family since 2000, “Mujtahid” wrote in a series of remarks on Wednesday “"The report aims to hide the fact that Saudi Arabia intends to purchase drones from Israel via South Africa.” The Saudi analyst assured that the official report released by the Saudi Defense Ministry according to which the kingdom would build a drone factory in collaboration with South Africa is false. In a description to the mechanism developed to carry out the deal, “Mutahid” further noted  "Saud...
1 comment
Read more