Strict rules apply in the store: taking photos is prohibited, and you can only enter and shop using the Diplo application. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues individual consent to diplomats to purchase alcohol, and purchases are subject to a monthly quota system for each registered person.
All because the prince abused alcohol
The ban on the sale of alcohol in Saudi Arabia was introduced in 1952. It was supposed to be the result – wrote the Middle East Eye website on Saturday – of a scandal and diplomatic drama. A young prince from the ruling house of Saud drank too much alcohol at the reception of the British vice-consul. There was a dispute. He was asked to leave the meeting. He came back with a gun. He shot the host. The furious king arrested the prince and, as the portal claims, citing archived press, “offered the widow the privilege of choosing any method of execution for him, including the option of placing the beheaded head” in a visible place. The widow rejected this offer, and the prince was sent to prison. A year later, a formal ban on importation , trade, production and consumption of alcohol became law.
Access to alcohol, considered illicit by Muslims for religious reasons, is restricted in many Islamic countries, although these rules often do not apply to non-Muslims. The ban applies, among others, to: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza. As much as 93 percent Saudi Arabian citizens do not use alcohol, according to Strait Research. He points out that “a notable 6.6% of the population ignores the ban and often flies to neighboring Bahrain or Dubai,” where alcohol laws are more liberal. Despite this, the portal emphasizes, the Middle East and Asia still have the lowest alcohol consumption rates, including Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Bhutan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Iraq.
Despite hopes that the opening of the store is an introduction to alcohol liberalization, the British “The Times”, citing the head of the Ministry of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khatib, cooled down these hopes on Monday: no decisions have been made yet to loosen access to alcohol, even in the construction sites. on the coast resorts for foreign tourists.
