Saudi Prayers No Longer Disrupt Shopping in Time of Coronavirus
With people’s movement limited, many stores are no longer closing for worship.
A customer at a Carrefour supermarket in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 19.
Photographer: Tasneem Alsultan/Bloomberg
As the call to noon prayer sounded at a shopping mall in Riyadh, a woman was having her temperature checked as she walked into a boutique. Another was sniffing the perfume that a salesman had just sprayed on her wrist. A man pushed his trolley into a supermarket.
The monotone of the muezzin beckoning Muslims to worship five times a day is usually accompanied by a rush to close stores. But in the time of coronavirus and government curfews, another hallmark of Saudi life appears to have been dispensed with. Some locals now hope the change will become part of the massive social overhaul they’ve experienced since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became their de facto leader in 2017.