By ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: Outraged over the maltreatment of one of its female representatives by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia), the German Tourism Commission abruptly bowed out Wednesday of the Riyadh International Exhibition for Travel.

Regional director for sales and marketing at the German National Tourist Office in Gulf Antje Roeding said the men took offense to the red stripes on the German woman’s abaya. They also demanded that she not speak to male visitors, according to a report in Thursday’s Al-Riyadh newspaper.

“We will stop our participation in the exhibition because of the strange conduct of some men who entered the exhibition in a frightening manner,” the report quoted Roeding as saying.

The representative said the men were the only people at the event who behaved deplorably, and that all of the other Saudi attendees behaved in a “polite and ideal manner.” read more