Stick-Wielding Saudi Moral Police In Gloom As Social Restrictions Eased

Saudi Arabia, home to the two holiest Muslim sites, has long been associated with a rigid branch of Islam known as Wahhabism.

In deeply conservative Saudi Arabia the religious police once elicited terror, chasing men and women out of malls to pray and berating anyone seen mingling with the opposite sex.

But the stick-wielding guardians of public morality have watched gloomily as in recent years their country eased some social restrictions -- especially for women -- and grumble bitterly at the changing times.

"Anything I should ban is now allowed, so I quit," Faisal, a former officer, who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his identity, told AFP.

Saudi Arabia, home to the two holiest Muslim sites, has long been associated with a rigid branch of Islam known as Wahhabism.