A liquor store has opened in Saudi Arabia for the first time in more than seven decades, a diplomat reported Wednesday. This marks a further step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom’s move toward social liberalization, despite being home to the holiest sites in Islam. While restricted to non-Muslim diplomats, the store in Riyadh is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to transform the kingdom into a tourism and business destination, as part of ambitious plans to diversify its economy away from crude oil. Challenges remain from the prince’s international reputation after the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and internally with the conservative Islamic mores that have governed its culture for decades.
The store is located next to a supermarket in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The store is described as similar to an upscale duty-free shop at a major international airport and stocks liquor, wine, and only two types of beer for the time being. Workers at the store ask customers for their diplomatic identifications and request them to place their mobile phones inside pouches while inside. Purchases can be made using a mobile app on an allotment system, according to the diplomat.
Saudi officials did not respond to a request for comment about the store. However, the store opening coincides with a story by the English-language newspaper Arab News, owned by the state-aligned Saudi Research and Media Group, on new rules governing alcohol sales to diplomats in the kingdom. The rules are meant “to curb the uncontrolled importing of these special goods and liquors within the diplomatic consignments” and took effect Monday, as reported by the newspaper.
For years, diplomats have been able to import liquor into the kingdom for consumption on diplomatic grounds. Those without access in the past have obtained liquor from bootleggers or brewed their own inside their homes. The U.S. State Department warns that those arrested and convicted for consuming alcohol can face “long jail sentences, heavy fines, public floggings, and deportation.” Drinking alcohol is considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam. Saudi Arabia remains one of the very few nations in the world with a ban on alcohol, alongside its neighbor Kuwait and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The kingdom has banned alcohol since the early 1950s when then-King Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s founding monarch, stopped its sale following a 1951 incident in which one of his sons, Prince Mishari, became intoxicated and fatally shot British vice consul Cyril Ousman in Jeddah.
Following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and an attack on the Grand Mosque at Mecca, Saudi Arabia’s rulers further embraced Wahhabism, an ultraconservative Islamic doctrine born in the kingdom. Strict gender separation, a women’s driving ban, and other measures were put in place. Under Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman, the kingdom has opened movie theaters, allowed women to drive, and hosted major music festivals. However, political speech and dissent remain strictly criminalized, potentially facing the penalty of death.
As Saudi Arabia prepares for a $500 billion futuristic city project called Neom, reports have circulated that alcohol could be served at a beach resort there. Sensitivities, however, remain. After an official suggested that “alcohol was not off the table” at Neom in 2022, he soon ceased working at the project.
