A liquor store has opened in Saudi Arabia for the first time in over 70 years, a diplomat reported Wednesday, a further socially liberalizing step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom that is home to the holiest sites in Islam.
While restricted to non-Muslim diplomats, the store in Riyadh comes as Saudi Arabia’s assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aims to make the kingdom a tourism and business destination as part of ambitious plans to slowly wean its economy away from crude oil.
However, challenges remain both from the prince’s international reputation after the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi as well as internally with the conservative Islamic mores that have governed its sandy expanses for decades.
The store sits next to a supermarket in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a socially sensitive topic in Saudi Arabia. The diplomat walked through the store Wednesday, describing it as similar to an upscale duty free shop at a major international airport.
The store stocks liquor, wine and only two types of beer for the time being, the diplomat said. Workers at the store asked customers for their diplomatic identifications and for them to place their mobile phones inside of pouches while inside. A mobile phone app allows purchases on an allotment system, the diplomat said.
Saudi officials did not respond to a request for comment regarding the store.
However, the opening of the store coincides with a story run by the English-language newspaper Arab News, owned by the state-aligned Saudi Research and Media Group, on new rules governing alcohol sales to diplomats in the kingdom.
It described the rules as meant “to curb the uncontrolled importing of these special goods and liquors within the diplomatic consignments.” The rules took effect Monday, the newspaper reported.
For years, diplomats have been able to import liquor through a specialty service into the kingdom, for consumption on diplomatic grounds.
Those without access in the past have purchased liquor from bootleggers or brewed their own inside their homes. However, the U.S. State Department warns that those arrested and convicted for consuming alcohol can face “long jail sentences, heavy fines, public floggings and deportation.”
Drinking alcohol is considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam. Saudi Arabia remains one of the few nations in the world with a ban on alcohol, alongside its neighbor Kuwait and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia has banned alcohol since the early 1950s. Then-King Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s founding monarch, stopped its sale following a 1951 incident in which one of his sons, Prince Mishari, became intoxicated and used a shotgun to kill British vice consul Cyril Ousman in Jeddah.
Following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and a militant attack on the Grand Mosque at Mecca, Saudi Arabia’s rulers soon further embraced Wahhabism, an ultraconservative Islamic doctrine born in the kingdom. Strict gender separation, a women’s driving ban and other measures were put in place.
Under Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman, the kingdom has opened movie theaters, allowed women to drive and hosted major music festivals. But political speech and dissent remains strictly criminalized, potentially at the penalty of death.
As Saudi Arabia prepares for a $500 billion futuristic city project called Neom, reports have circulated that alcohol could be served at a beach resort there.
Sensitivities, however, remain. After an official suggested that “alcohol was not off the table” at Neom in 2022, within days he soon no longer was working at the project.
Follow us on:
The CAC has removed dormant companies that failed to file annual reports for 10 years…
NEC has set a one-week deadline for Kwara, Kebbi, and Adamawa to submit state police…
Amazon may face an EU investigation over preferential treatment of its own products under the…
https://cdn.veri.app/a21afe40-c7c7-4a5c-b145-4fc72382ab4b.mp4 Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, during the night of tribute, held in honour of the…
The Kano State government has reunited 79 pardoned minors accused of looting in the #End…
Matt Gaetz has announced that he is withdrawing his name from consideration as Donald Trump’s…
View Comments
NIGERIA 🇳🇬 CUST0M SERVICE REPLACEMENT FORM IS FINALLY OUT FOR 2024 /2025 BATCH B AND YOU CAN GET IT DIRECTLY FROM THE ZONAL HEADQUARTERS IN NIGERIA INTERESTED APPLICANT THAT HAS WAECE, NECO, NCE, ND, HND, BSC CAN APPLY PLEASE KINDLY CONTACT ME ON: FOR MORE INQUIRIES
BAGS OF RICE 35,500
VEGETABLE OIL 25.
LITTER 15,000
TOKUMBO VEHICLE FOR
SALE AT AUCTION PRICE
INTERESTED BUYER
SHOULD CONTACT
OFFICER ODISI ON
[O9I 5608 9111 ]
CARS FEATURES AND
PRICE BELOW
Tipper head 6m
Dyan truck 900k
GOLF 2,3,4,5 #500,000
TOYOTA CAMRY BIG
DADDY #550,000
TOYOTA CAMRY
TINYLIGH= #350,000
TOYOTA CAMRY
MUSCLE= #850,000
TOYOTA CAMRY
PENCILLIGHT=#500,000
TOYOTA COROLLA
le=#550,000
TOYOTA COROLLA
S=#750,000
TOYOTA
VENZA=#950,00 1.8m
Tacoma 1,000,000
TOYOTA Hilux 1.5 million
TOYOTA AVALON
#800,000
TOYOTA AVENSIS
#700,000
TOYOTA RAV4 800k
TOYOTA SIENNA
#650,000
TOYOTA
4runner#950,000
Bus 900k
TOYOTA TUNDRA 1.9m
TOYOTA PICNIC
#550,000
TOYOTA Highlander
#950,000
TOYOTA PADRO JEEP
1.6m
TOYOTA LAND
CRUISER=1.5m
TOYOTA YARIS #459,000
TOYOTA MATRIX
#650,000
TOYOTA HAICE BUS
#750,000
ACCURA ZDX 1.6m
ACCURA MDX 1.9m
HONDA PILOT #950,00
HONDA BABY BOY
#550,000
HONDA END OF
DISCUSSION
HONDA ACCORD
#550,000
Honda CR-V #850,000
INFINITY fx450 #750,000
to 1.4m
NISSAN MURANO
#650,00
Es250 900k
LEXUS RX 350 #1.2m
LEXUS RS 330 # 1m
Gx460 2.7m
LEXUS RS 300 # 900,000
LEXUS RX 470 1.5m
Es3501mill
Range rover 3mill
All NEGOTIABLE WE
RENDER GOOD SERVICE
TO CUSTOMER ....{ E.T .C}
LOCATION AT OGUN
STATE IDIROKO BORDER WE
HAVE TWO OPTION
EITHER WE DELIVERY OR
YOU COME OVER IF YOU
HAVE TO COME OVER WE
NEED THIS FROM YOU
{1} NATIONAL ID CARD
{2} BORDER PERMIT
{3} INSPECTION DOCUMENTS
{4} 2PASSPORT
THANKS FOR YOUR
PATRONAGE WE
DELIVER TO 36 STATE IN
NIGERIA AND ALSO
COME DOWN WITH THE
FULL PAYMENT CALL
FOR MORE
INFORMATION
{O9I 5608.9111 }