DUBAI: A Saudi cleric has sparked uproar by appearing on television along with his wife — whose face was uncovered in an open challenge to strict tradition in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamedi, who has said covering the face is not a must for women under Islam, sat alongside his wife Jawaher bint Ali as she spoke to Dubai-based Saudi MBC television, in a programme broadcast at the weekend. Saudi women rarely show their faces in public.

Sporting trendy sunglasses, light makeup and varnished nails, but also wearing the traditional black abaya cloak, Ghamedi’s spouse spoke of the problems their children have at school because of their father’s controversial fatwas or edicts.

“Our children complain that some teachers tell them: why does your father say this and that?” she said of fatwas that have enraged zealots in the kingdom.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2014