The Saudi Arabia ‘Too Handsome’ Policy: The Flattering Yet Still Inconvenient Way To Get Deported Or Discriminated By The Islamic Nation’s Morality Police

The Saudi Arabia ‘too handsome’ deportation policy is causing amusement for many, and made people wonder how flattering the accusation can be. However, as indicated, being “too handsome” is indeed a real basis for unnecessarily attracting (no pun intended) the attention of the country’s morality police.

The story in Arabic-language newspaper, Elaph, about the deported “too handsome” Emirati men has gained widespread attention all over the world and a viral sensation, with many claiming (including the journalists writing about it), that they have finally found a story they can relate to. It has been featured on almost every major Western publication and has been shared thousands of times on both Twitter and Facebook.

According to Elaph, delegates from the United Arab Emirates were in attendance at the Jenadrivah Heritage & Culture Festival in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, when religious officers, also known as morality police, stormed the stand and evicted the men because “they are too handsome.”

The report from Elaph described the event, “A festival official said the three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they are too handsome and that the Commission [for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices] members feared female visitors could fall for them.” The Commission’s fear, according to the report, is that women would find them irresistible.

The country’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is a Saudi Arabian government bureaucracy employing “religious police” to enforce the Sharia law within the Islamic nation.

The UAE released an official statement on the matter saying that religious police were anxious over the unexpected presence of an unnamed female artist in the pavilion.

Saeed Al Kaabi, head of the UAE delegation, said, “Her visit to the UAE stand was a coincidence as it was not included in the programme which we had already provided to the festival’s management.”

It was also unclear if the female artist’s presence in the pavilion was related to the decision of evicting the “too handsome” Emirati men.

After the incident, Elaph said the festival’s management took swift action to deport the trio back to Abu Dhabi.

In an article on UAE’s The National newspaper, journalist Rym Ghazal said that the “hunt for these three” men are on, “because naturally, many women are curious to meet them and see what exactly made them ‘too handsome.’ All we know is that they returned to Abu Dhabi,” said Ghazal.

According to the journalist, she has seen the discriminatory “too handsome” policy enforced first hand by the morality police to a friend while she was in Jeddah. “One of my male friends got the ‘you are too handsome’ treatment while meeting us at a family restaurant. He was wearing a regular pair of jeans and a loose white shirt, but was told to go home and put on ‘less tight’ clothes and asked to keep his gaze down, since his light-green eyes were ‘too attractive.’”

Her friend retaliated saying he “can’t undo what Allah” has given him, but was eventually forced out of the restaurant and escorted by a member of the morality police to his car.

Saudi Arabia is a deeply religious and ultraconservative society and forbids women from interacting with unrelated males. The country, with a majority Sunni Muslim populace, refuses to grant women same rights as men. It is the only nation in the world where women are not allowed to drive.