I was talking today to a friend of mine who came from Saudi Arabia after living there for 3 years, during which she did her Junior and Senior years in high-school and her first year of college. She was telling me about her experience in that country and about the social life there (actually the lack of it). Even though I am well aware of how closed-minded the system is in the Kingdom and I’ve heard many stories about how religion, in this Islamic theocracy, controls every aspect of the people’s lives, I was stunned by the reality she was describing; some of these stories were hilarious while others were really horrifying.

 

At one point during our little chat, she started recounting some of the Fatwa’s that were being advocated in the period she was living there. A Fatwa is a religious opinion/edict announced by an Islamic scholar. Muslims who respect the judgment of this “mufti” regard these Fatwa’s as a law which they should follow. She told me about some of these bylaws and I couldn’t believe that such absurd, and even perverted, reasoning can be regarded by many people as “reasonable”.

 

After listening to those eccentric accounts, I was somewhat doubtful of how accurate they could be, so I googled them and guess what? She was right! I started reading about other bizarre Fatwa’s – there are so many of them – and it gave me an idea about a daily segment for this blog which I will call: Fatwa of the Day. Even though some of these stories happened a while ago, in my opinion, they would make an interesting read for anyone who takes pleasure in a little sarcasm. I will publish the first one right after this post so check it out hopefully you will enjoy this new theme.