Saudi woman wearing nail polish stands up to religious police (VIDEO)
Saudi youth wave their national flag as they celebrate the return of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Feb. 23, 2011.
Religious police ordered a woman in Saudi Arabia to leave the Hayat Mall, the Saudi Gazette reported. Her crime? Wearing nail polish. But the woman refused.
"Get out of the mall?! I'll show you who's getting out of the mall," she retorted. She filmed her confrontation with the religious police, also known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. She later uploaded footage of the fight to YouTube.
More from GlobalPost: Promises, pitfalls await investors in Burma’s frontier
Locals had differing opinions about the confrontation. Many celebrated her bravery, but "others voiced concerns that the clip might be exploited to distort the commission’s image," according to the Saudi Gazette.
The commission has received heavy criticism for its treatment of women. In November, a spokesman for the commission proposed forcing women with "tempting eyes" to wear a black dress over their entire face, USA Today reported.
And in one tragic incident, religious police were accused of preventing girls from escaping a fire because they were not wearing head scarves, BBC News reported in 2002.
The woman in the mall, however, remained undeterred.
"You have no right to harass anyone," she yells in the video. Watch below:
The article you just read is free because dedicated readers and listeners like you chose to support our nonprofit newsroom. Our team works tirelessly to ensure you hear the latest in international, human-centered reporting every weekday. But our work would not be possible without you. We need your help.
Make a gift today to help us reach our $25,000 goal and keep The World going strong. Every gift will get us one step closer.