A Saudi cleric has said baby girls should be veiled to avoid sexual harassment, in remarks broadcast on television that sparked outrage in the conservative kingdom.
"Girls should wear the veil from the age of two," said Abdullah Daoud on Islamic television Al-Majd, adding that Saudis should follow the example of South Asian countries.
"If a girl is sexually desired, her parents should cover her face and force her to wear veil," to protect her against perverts, he said.
Practicing Muslims believe that girls must begin wearing head covers such as the veil from the age of puberty.
Daoud's comments, in an interview which was posted on the Internet, sparked an outcry across social networks and the local press, with prominent cleric Salman al-Audah joining the protests.
"We hope that these aberrant statements will not be exaggerated and taken as fatwa (religious edict)," Audah told AFP on Tuesday.
Saudi columnist Badria al-Bisher slammed Daoud for his proposal of veiling little girls, "instead of proposing a stern law curbing sexual harassment, and school and media awareness campaigns."
Saudi tweeters also vented their fury.
"What level of moral deterioration have such people reached?" asked lawyer Abdulrahman al-Lahim on Twitter, claiming that "sex obsession" is behind such statements.
"The best solution is to exile women, old or young, to remote countries, as long as we have men acting like animals," wrote female Saudi journalist Halima Muthffar on Twitter.
Women in Saudi Arabia are deprived of many rights that are considered basic elsewhere, including the right to drive, and cannot travel without proper authorisation from their male guardians.
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Damn it!
I thank God so very much that I am not born to be this race or to be any other Arabs.
You people can brag about your race being chosen by God as the all prophets are from your region and that you stand on soil filled with black gold.
But this is an absolute example of rotten Muslim cleric from your region, just like the one who raped and killed his own daughter.
You rotten minded cleric, you should be burnt in hell.
You shameless cleric, you must have had the same thought of raping your own daughter too.
How the hell a two year old girl can be sexually desired?
I have seen hundreds of two year old girls and none of them are sexually desired.
Your eyes and mind must be led by satan!
You are a good example of so-called religious people but you heart and mind are filled with rotten and sex all day long. Even back in my home country, an imam was caught raping and that is not an abnormal case of religiously-inclined people committing such hideous act.
You are a PIG and should be quelled before you commit yourself into greater sins of raping and incest.
People like you is the reason why the western world and the non Muslim labelled the religion and believers as barbaric and sexually- inclined.
Damn you man!
And damn you people who have similar thought.
