Middle East

We were just normal people until the events of 1979, says Saudi Crown Prince

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to visit the United Sates to meet Donald Trump.

It is said that Iran, the ‘mutual rival’ of both the countries will be a priority in the discussions however, the Prince is expected to high light the sweeping changes he has brought to the kingdom.

Prior to his visit, in an interview with CBS, the 32-year old Prince said that Saudi were normal people until the events of 1979.

The prince acknowledged Saudi society was dominated by particularly harsh strain of conservative Islam, which he traces back to 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the seizure by extremists of the Grand Mosque in Makkah.

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“We were victims, especially my generation that suffered from this a great deal,” he said.

“This is not the real Saudi Arabia. I would ask your viewers to use their smart phones to find out. And they can google Saudi Arabia in the 70s and 60s, and they will see the real Saudi Arabia easily in the pictures.

“We were living a very normal life like the rest of the Gulf countries. Women were driving cars. There were movie theaters in Saudi Arabia. Women worked everywhere. We were just normal people developing like any other country in the world until the events of 1979.”

Prince Mohammed has implemented some reforms on women’s rights, loosening clothing restrictions, pushing for greater participation in the workforce, and, significantly, lifting a ban on women driving.

But guardianship laws, which require women to seek the permission of male relatives for a host of activities, remain in place.

“We have extremists who forbid mixing between the two sexes and are unable to differentiate between a man and a woman alone together and their being together in a work place. Many of those ideas contradict the way of life during the time of the Prophet (pbuh),” he said.

“We are all human beings and there is no difference.”

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