RIYADH – Vogue Arabia’s June edition features Princess Hayfa bint Abdullah al-Saud behind the wheel, wearing leather gloves and stilettos, with a desert outside Jeddah in the background.
The magazine issue, which celebrates the country’s ongoing reforms and “trailblazing women of Saudi Arabia”, has come out notably in the run-up to the largely conservative kingdom lifting a driving ban on women and strictly after the arrests of a number of long-term women’s rights activists struggling to weaken male rule in the country.
Speaking in an interview with the fashion magazine, Princess Hayfa cited “a number of conservatives” in the country who fear change. “For many, it’s all they have known,” she added.
However, there were users who blasted the image, bringing up the issue of the activists’ arrests in May, although a number of them were released shortly thereafter. Pointing to the crackdown as a clear cue to the limits that the crown prince’s reforms may potentially have, they edited the Vogue image, placing the detained activists’ faces over the princess’s image.
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“You should be ashamed of yourselves! What has this woman done to help? Nothing! Let’s see her use her power to free these activists from jail, THEN you can put her on a cover,” said an Instagram user in a heartfelt comment.
The kingdom has lately embarked on an all-embracing social reform program, in the framework of “Vision 2030,” famously introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; in line with it, he recently conducted a global tour aimed at reshaping Saudi Arabia’s austere image abroad.
