Saudis close Canadian education booths staffed by women

A Canadian embassy booth and another for a private Montreal college were shut down at a Saudi Arabia education fair last week because they were being run by women.

Organizers for the Canadian contingent say three women staffing the booths were forced to leave the fair by the country's religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, even though they had received permission to be there.

George Chrysomilides, president of the Canadian Education Network, said there hasn't been an incident like this in the 10 years Canada has attended the event, and he plans to get to the bottom of it.

"From what I hear ... the religious police were very rude. They shouted at them in a way that was disrespectful and they shut down the booth, the Canadian embassy booth as well as the LaSalle College booth," Mr. Chrysomilides said in an interview yesterday.

Islamic Police Eject French Woman from Tehran Book Fair

The Cultural Heritage News Agency of Iran reported today that a French woman who attended the Tehran Book Fair on behalf of the French government was taken against her will from the French booth by the Islamic police and ejected from the fair site for an improper hijab. (A new campaign against laxity in the wearing of the hijab is in progress in Iran.)

A CHN correspondent at the location reports that while the French representative was explaining about the books for the Iranian students and other visitors, the outside police rushed into the French booth and forced her out onto the fair grounds.

As people watched in disbelief, an Islamic Guidance and Culture ministry representative who happened to be there and witnessed the incident told the CHN reporter that he did not understand why the uniformed police entered, since the fair has its own custodial security force. He added that this type of behavior concerning a woman from a different culture is an indication of incompetence in the handling of the foreign visitors and guests of this fair.