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In a 30-second video aired in Saudi Arabia, a hotel employee invites his viewers to "join us" at breakfast while he shares a meal with a veiled female coworker. The short excerpt quickly earned the stigma of violating the deeply conservative traditions of the Gulf kingdom, and he was arrested on Sunday.
The man, who was only identified as an Egyptian national, was summoned for failing to comply with government regulations stipulating a separate workplace according to sex, according to the guardian.
"The Ministry of Labor has arrested an expat in Jeddah after it appeared in an offensive video," the ministry said.
The pictures show the couple eating at a desk and greeting the camera. Towards the end of the clip, the woman, dressed in a black niqab and an abaya, seems to feed the man.
Saudi Arabia prohibits men and women who are not linked to socialization. For most activities, women must be accompanied by a guardian, usually a close relative. In workplaces and restaurants, women and men are usually separated.
After the widely shared video sparked a reaction from conservative critics, the prosecution urged expatriates in the Muslim kingdom to respect the "values and traditions of Saudi society", the guardian reports.
The arrest of the hotel worker comes as the uneven efforts of the kingdom to launch a series of social and economic reforms, many of which target the role of women in Saudi society. What Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman proclaimed to modernize the kingdom has, however, been dubbed by some observers as a superficial attempt to win the West's favor.
Detractors of the effort highlight the long-awaited end of the ban on women driving last summer, which came at the same time as the imprisonment of women activists who campaigned to end the ban.
Although the first mixed concerts were allowed, efforts were also made to increase the regulation of women's clothing and activities. In April, Saudi sports authorities closed a women's gym in Riyadh after a promotional video featured a woman in sportswear.
