A video went viral in Saudi Arabia Sunday and sparked an online debate on street harassment, The Saudi Gazette reported. The video, which was published on YouTube, showed two women walking on Jeddah's Sari Street at the Corniche in the early morning while being followed by a large group of young men and boys, asking the girls to go out with them or to give them their phone numbers. They then circled the young women, and wouldn't let them leave, despite their pleas to leave them alone.
The video triggered such outrage on Twitter that Mecca Emir Khaled Al-Faisal ordered authorities to investigate the footage and apprehend the people in it. Here's what people had to say:
"The chief motive behind harassment is [girls] not taking the sanctioned hijab seriously, and wearing make-up [to make themselves look] attractive... In other regions of the kingdom, it's safe for women."
"The fault falls on both parties: decency is imposed on the girl and the man should look away. The problem is that some people think that Jeddah is not part of Saudi Arabia"
"They were asking for it. It's very obvious that the girl interacted with them first, and the young men didn't want to harass [her], except when they saw her leaving."
Watch the incident here, and tell us what you think: