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Spanish minister scraps Saudi speech over women ban

MADRID: Spain’s justice minister refused to deliver a lecture at a university in Saudi Arabia on Monday after authorities banned visiting female journalists from attending, a spokeswoman and one of the reporters said.

The Spanish reporters were prevented from entering Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University despite the fact they were all wearing the traditional black abaya and veil, according to one of the correspondents from SER radio, Esther Bazan.

Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar decided to cancel his lecture on the globalisation of terrorism at the institution - the academic heart of Saudi Arabia’s hardline Wahhabi Islam.

Saudi authorities said the university was an all-male institution and women were not allowed, but the Spanish delegation and reporters travelling with them were not informed about the ban until Sunday night.

On Monday, they tried to enter the university anyway, radio station Cadena Ser said. “Yesterday, at the last minute, we were told women couldn’t enter the university. He cancelled because the none of the women were allowed to be there,” a Justice Ministry spokeswoman in Madrid said.

She said a written copy was given to students instead.

Graduates of Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud work in the government, mosques, courts and in the religious police force which patrols all Saudi cities and towns to enforce Islam-oriented public order.

Last March, Britain’s Prince Charles became the first non-Muslim foreign dignitary to visit the university.

The lecture was to have closed a two-day visit by Lopez Aguilar, who is stepping down from the justice post to run for office in his native Canary Island region. reuters

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