The Washington Post reported that the spokeswomen of the first Lady, Stephanie Grisham, wrote in an email that “There was no request/requirement for her attire in Saudi,”
Read original article by Sarah Pulliam Bailey on the Washington Post or read a quick summary below;
- “There was some confusion, however, over why the first lady wore a veil — or a mantilla — at the Vatican while she didn’t wear a headscarf in the Muslim country of Saudi Arabia.”
- “Her spokeswoman wrote in an email that the first lady was following Vatican protocol where women who have an audience with the pope wear long sleeves, formal black clothing and a veil to cover the head. “There was no request/requirement for her attire in Saudi,” Stephanie Grisham wrote.”
- “Women tend to wear a veil as a kind of throwback to Catholic women who wore them in church before Vatican II in the 1960s.”
- “In Saudi Arabia, Muslim women are said to be required to wear a headscarf, but foreigners aren’t required to adhere to the same dress code. Some prominent women have worn headscarfs for official visits to Saudi Arabia, but it isn’t necessarily considered an insult to the country’s leaders to not wear one.”
- ““I think people are reading into it and misinterpreting it,” said Jane Hampton Cook, a presidential and first lady historian. “The pope is the head of a church. The king of Saudi Arabia is the head of state. There is a difference between seeing a religious leader vs. showing respect to a king who’s the head of state.” (Clarification: Pope Francis is both a head of a church and a head of a state since Vatican City is a country.)
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