“We’re having to look out for slogans that violate the foundations of Islam and public morals like selling homosexuality colours, focusing on the younger technology,” stated an official from the Ministry of Commerce, who was unnamed within the report and is concerned within the marketing campaign, in accordance with al-Ekhbariya.
Homosexuality is illegitimate in Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a strict interpretation of Sharia regulation.
The objects which had been seized by authorities had been seen to be vibrant in coloration, starting from youngsters’s hair equipment, pencil circumstances, and backpacks to rainbow stripes featured in crayon packets, all designed for youngsters, the al-Ekhbariya report particulars.
The Saudi officers had been seen to be in a youngsters’s store with numerous toys taken from the cabinets and piled in a heap on the ground, the place the reporter for al-Ekhbariya pointed in direction of a rainbow flag saying the “homosexuality flag is current in one of many Riyadh markets,” including the colours ship a “toxic message” to youngsters.
The report didn’t point out the variety of outlets that had been focused nor what number of objects had been seized.
CNN has reached out to Saudi authorities for a touch upon the report however has not but obtained a response.
In December final 12 months, authorities in neighboring Qatari carried out an analogous raid the place they introduced they inspected stores throughout numerous areas within the nation, seizing youngsters’s toys that had been “bearing slogans that go in opposition to Islamic values,” a tweet from the Qatari Ministry of Commerce and Business stated (MOCI).
“The Ministry of Commerce carried out inspection campaigns on numerous outlets in numerous areas of the nation, and the campaigns resulted within the seizure and launch of numerous violations, represented by youngsters enjoying with slogans that violate Islamic values, customs, and traditions,” MOCI stated.