Because “showing off their beauty” is not allowed…
Via Middle East Eye:
Saudi Arabia’s consultative assembly has passed a law requiring female television to wear “modest dress”, according to local media reports.
Arab News, which is part of a group of companies owned by King Salman’s son Prince Turki, said the law passed in the Shura Council, an advisory body, will make it mandatory for women not to “show off their beauty” while on air.
The law will come into force once approved by the country’s cabinet and will apply to “women media workers in the Kingdom” including on the MBC and Rotana channels, the chairperson of the Shura Council media committee Ahmed al-Zailaee said.
Some members of the council said there are other more important matters to focus on.
“There are many other pressing issues such as the danger posed by the media activities of the so-called Islamic State terrorist group,” Latifa al-Shualan, a Shura member, was reported as having said.
The new legislation comes after an announcement in January by the national Saudi Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) that it would implement a dress code for its female television presenters. The code demands that female media workers wear black headscarves and abayas (full-length cloak), which the SBC said would be decorated with the corporate colours of the relevant television channel.