🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Hosts First-Ever Swimsuit Fashion
Islamic-dominated countries have enforced Islam and Quranic tenets as the law of their various countries. No other country does it with an ironclad fist like Saudi Arabia. One man decides what everyone else does. MBS, the acronym for Mohammed bin Salman, the young crown prince who acts on a whim, has introduced some fundamental changes.
Let’s suppress the barbarism inflicted on the late Jamal Khashoggi by the crown prince for now, not to say it is forgotten (the Saudi dissident who was slaughtered at the Saudi embassy in Turkey). Saudi Arabia held its first fashion show featuring swimsuit models on Friday, an envelope-pushing step in a country where less than a decade ago, women were required to wear body-covering abaya robes.
The poolside show featuring the work of Moroccan designer Yasmina Qanzal included mostly one-piece suits in shades of red, beige, and blue. Most models had exposed shoulders, and some had their midriffs partially visible.
Interestingly, not a single one of the models was Arab or black. Ten per cent of Saudi Arabia is black. What is the point of the show if people who look like your countrymen are not taking part? Well, at least MBS has done what none expected in this century. Saudi Arabia is slowly opening up; let’s hope for the better.
By Ikechukwu ORJI
