Islamic clerics in Saudi Arabia noticed that plastic surgery is on the rise among its population. After meeting with local plastic surgeons, these religious leaders took an official stance on which cosmetic procedures are religiously correct.
Saudi Arabia is an area of the world known more for its culture of religious faith than for its embrace of something like cosmetic surgery. But a new report from the Associated Press shows that cosmetic surgery is indeed on the rise there, especially among women. They’re most often requesting liposuction, breast augmentations and nose jobs – and men are asking for more nose jobs and hair implants.
In fact, the Saudi capital city of Riyadh alone now includes some 35 plastic surgery centers. But given that the religious culture of Saudi Arabia is still firmly in place, the new surgical trend has sparked some theological thought among its surgeons.
The Islamic stance on appearance is that what we look like is what God created and should thus be left as it is. Based on this, Saudi plastic surgeons met with Islamic clergymen three years ago for a summit that determined which cosmetic surgeries are religiously correct. The meeting resulted in a few guidelines that are practiced today.
The verdict was that undergoing facial surgery to fix damage brought about by an accident or a sickness is generally acceptable – while surgeries such as nose jobs and breast implants are not. Any surgical procedure that is seen as vain, or intended to make a patient resemble a celebrity, is frowned upon. In spite of this, the AP reports, such operations still commonly take place.
One Saudi doctor noted that the demand for cosmetic surgery in Saudi Arabia is simply mirroring the trend throughout the rest of the world. The difference, he told the Associated Press, is that patients in the Middle East are more willing to undergo procedures that make their faces look increasingly unnatural, a trend likely spurred on by media coverage of entertainers who have undergone similar procedures.
