Footage of a Saudi cleric calling for all female babies to have their faces covered with the burkha has surfaced. Sheikh Abdullah Daoud delivered the fatwa on Islamic al-Majd TV and stressed his belief the veil would protect baby girls from being sexually molested.
The clip, flagged up by Al Arabiya, sees him attempting to back up the ruling by quoting unnamed Saudi Arabian medical and security sources.
Jihad Watch points out comments made by Saudi marriage official Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu’bi which were aired on LBC TV in 2008. He said: “There is no minimal age for entering marriage. You can have a marriage contract even with a one-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of nine, seven or eight. This is merely a contract [indicating] consent.”
While Daoud’s comments were made in October last year, they have been revisited in light of the verdict against a Saudi cleric accused of raping and torturing his five-year-old daughter to death.
According to the Associated Press, Fayhan al-Ghamdi was ordered to pay $50,000 “blood money” to the slain girl’s mother, but was spared a jail sentence. He is said to have questioned the girl's virginity. Under Saudi Arabian Islamic law, a father cannot be executed for murdering his children or his wife.