A prominent cleric has caused uproar in Saudi Arabia by bringing his wife on national television with her face uncovered, in an open challenge to conservative traditions of dress.
Sheikh Ahmad al-Ghamedi has been receiving death threats since his wife, Jawaher, accompanied him on a popular chat show earlier this week, delighting reformists and scandalising conservatives.
One hardline cleric has called for the sheikh — once a former head of the religious police in Mecca and now a leading liberal voice — to be tortured as punishment. But many Saudis have flocked to the couple’s defence as the controversy brings the simmering debate on women’s rights in the kingdom back to the boil. Wearing light make-up and painted nails with her traditional black abaya dress,