10 held for mixed-gender party in Saudi

Saudi Arabia’s feared Islamic police arrested 10 boys and girls for taking part in a mixed-gender birthday party in the conservative Gulf Kingdom, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice raided a rest house in the central town of Madina and seized six young men and four girls during the party, the online Arabic language daily Burnews said.

“The Commission said the 10 were caught smoking and dancing while wearing indecent clothes,” it said.

Mixed-gender meetings are banned in public places in Saudi Arabia unless those involved are relatives. Most schools and universities in the world’s dominant oil power also enforce a sex-segregation system despite recent calls to end the ban.

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