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A liquor store has opened in Saudi Arabia for the first time in more than 70 years, a diplomat reported Wednesday, a further socially liberalizing step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom that is home to the holiest sites in Islam.
The store is located in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, where embassies and diplomats reside, and currently stocks liquor, wine, and two types of beer, according to a diplomat who spoke to the Associated Press.
The government of Saudi Arabia has reportedly opened its first liquor store since alcohol was banned in the early 1950s.
BBC – Saudi Arabia has said it will open a shop in Riyadh selling alcohol to a select band of non-Muslim expats, the first to open in more than 70 years. The clientele will be limited to diplomatic staff, who have for years imported booze in sealed official packages known as diplomatic pouches. Saudi officials...
Prohibition has been law since 1952, after one of King Abdulaziz's sons drunkenly shot dead a diplomat.