A video of a controversial bus incident posted by a student in Saudi Arabia has gone viral throughout the kingdom, garnering well over a million views since Monday. The video doesn't contain a lot in the way of visuals but the audio reveals the controversy.
A male supervisor on the bus accused one of the female students of slipping off her niqab during the routine trip in route to Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University. In the video, he says it is against the university's regulations for her to remove the niqab and tries to kick her off the bus.
Arab News reported that another student stated that she routinely removes her niqab during the bus ride as she sits in the back and all passengers are women. As women are not legally able to drive in Saudi Arabia, the driver is necessarily male.
The paper reported that the supervisor could not initially identify which girl had removed her niqab, and so threatened to kick all of the passengers off the bus if they did not turn her in. When the women refused, he ordered the bus' driver to turn off the air-conditioning in a bid to sweat the truth out of the passengers as the temperature hit 47 degrees outside.
Despite his persistence, the women refused to turn over the alleged offender, and one passenger told Arab News that the supervisor made the them walk to the next stop as a punishment.
According to Cairo Scene, the university's code of conduct does not actually mention veils. Arab News reported that the university tweeted a message for all students to follow the institution's bylaws and regulations following the incident.