Flirters will be shorn!

Story here. We all knew that in strict Muslim countries, talking to members of the opposite sex to whom you are not related and for non-commercial or other very practical reasons is forbidden. But apparently, this doesn't stop nature from taking its course. So instead of locking everyone up, one particular political leader has decreed that men caught talking to or trying to talk to women in public will have their hair cut off.

I suppose it's better than getting tossed into jail. Or is it? There are cultural implications in the Middle East to having one's hair forcibly shorn that perhaps may make it more distressing than spending a few days in lock-up.

No mention of what happens to women who respond to a man's greeting, though.

Excerpt:

'RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A governor in northern Saudi Arabia has ordered authorities to punish men who flirt with women in public places by cutting their hair, local media said Tuesday.

Prince Fahd bin Badr, governor of the northern al-Jof region, ordered police to carry out the punishment after seeing a group of men with long hair pestering* female students as they left school in the northern al-Qurayat province, Al-Hayat newspaper said.
...
He said Fahd has ordered that the punishment against the men "who emulate women" should be carried out at the scene of the infraction, according to the paper.

"The decision, however, doesn't include all men with long hair," al-Rushoud was quoted by Al-Hayat as saying.'

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* "Pestering"? What exactly were they doing?