A hashtag currently trending on Twitter in Saudi Arabia questions whether hugging between men and women is a harmless act of affection or an inherently sexual act.
The hashtag #الحضن حب ولا قله ادب -- which translates to "Is hugging an act of love or sex?" -- was the top trending hashtag on Twitter in Saudi Arabia on Monday. (The Arabic hashtag can also be translated as: "Is hugging an act of love or indecency?")
Both male and female Arabs on Twitter quickly weighed in with their opinions on whether hugs could be just friendly or necessarily something else. "I hug my family and women friends, indecency has nothing to do with it," wrote one woman who goes by the handle @bnt_alshehri7.
"It depends on your intentions, but mostly [it's about] love and you feel more secured," said another user.
But not everyone agreed. "If it's within marriage it's love. Other than that it is indecent," wrote @toooty_966.
"It depends, before the hug it's indecency but after, it's love," said another user.
It bears mentioning that in traditional Arab society, the common hug so popularized in the West by now as a form of greeting has less of a place and function. Bear-hugs, man-hugs, comfort-hugs and other varieties of daily embrace expressons do not have a place on the platonic Middle Eastern menu.
Some public displays of affection are against the law in Saudi Arabia and in other Gulf countries. One of the more well-known cases involved a British couple who were sentenced to a month in prison in 2010 for having kissed publicly in Dubai.
--HS
