"Pigs Fly Moment" - Influential Saudi cleric says women don’t need to veil, can travel alone.

"Pigs Fly Moment" - Influential Saudi cleric says women don’t need to veil, can travel alone.(AA).An influential Saudi cleric has issued a religious edict, commonly known as Fatwa, allowing women to travel without a male guardian, uncover their faces and eat alongside men.

In statements posted on Twitter, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Qassim al-Ghamdi, the former head of Mecca's Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice committee, said: “It is permissible for people to look at what is not forbidden in women like their faces and their arms.”

In other statements, the cleric said women can travel without a male guardian provided that there is safety.

Al-Ghamdi backed his statements with references to sayings by prominent Muslim scholars in history.

Recent reports suggested that women in Saudi Arabia were being monitored by an electronic system that tracks their cross-border movements.

Al-Ghamdi is known for his liberal statements supporting women’s rights in the conservative kingdom. Previously, he issued a Fatwa saying that the mixing of the sexes is “permissible in Islam and is a natural part of life,” adding he did not understand why there was so much outrage when the co-ed university, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), was opened.

“Those who oppose mixing of the sexes are contradicting themselves as they most likely mix with the opposite sex on a daily basis, such as having female servants,” Sheikh al-Ghamdi, said.Hmmmm....."Hope springs eternal".Read the full story here.