JEDDAH — Saudi writer Abdullah Al-Dawood has, through his office, denied the accusations leveled against him claiming he had called for men to harass women working as cashiers. A translation of the actual tweet reads as follows: Fruitful reaction in hashtag # female cashier # harass_female_cashiers. This is a master's thesis that considers a female receptionist and cashier as (human trafficking). Since the misinterpreted tweet evoked a backlash, Al-Dawood's office responded with a statement of denial on Thursday, and the response was carried by several news portals. Al-Dawood's denial came only after local websites had spread his comments (tweet) that were later picked up by newspapers around the world. In his statement, Al-Dawood denied the report and called it “a sheer distortion of facts and the actual meaning of the tweet on Twitter.” The statement blamed newspapers and websites for publishing the news before ascertaining whether it was true or not. “It was quite easy for them to contact Al-Dawood for a statement to clarify the news but they did not,” the statement said. “Anyone who follows Al-Dawood on Twitter, reads his articles, or watches his programs will easily ascertain that he has always called for protecting the modesty of women and the rights of female workers,” the statement noted. Al-Dawood has more than 97,000 Twitter followers. The Saudi writer, despite claiming that his tweet had been taken out of context, however, triggered a fierce debate, according to local news websites reports. The errant tweet, however, brought him under a brutal attack — from both males and females, though some tweeters came out in his support. In another tweet, Al-Dawood had cited a story from the early days of Islam about a famous warrior, Al-Zubair, who did not want his wife to leave home to pray in the mosque. The tweet, after translation, reads: Abdullah Muhammad Al-Dawood @ALdawood1 Al-Zubair prevented his wife from going to the mosque, but she did not obey him. He disguised himself, waited on her way and touched her. She no longer went out and said, “I used to go out when people were respectable, but now that they have become corrupt my home is better for me.” Other newspaper reports also claimed that Khalid Ebrahim Al-Saqabi, a conservative cleric, supported Al-Dawood's calls and said a law proposed by the Saudi government against sexual harassment at workplace was “only meant to encourage consensual debauchery.”
