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The male model testing gender norms in a changing Saudi Arabia
With hot pink hair extensions and leopard print pantsuit, model Ziad al-Mesfer was bound to turn heads during his recent photo shoot in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia.
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Saudi model Ziad al-Mesfer is pictured in Tahliya street in the capital Riyadh, on April 9, 2022. (AFP/Fayez Nureldine)
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ith his hot pink hair extensions and leopard print pantsuit, model Ziad al-Mesfer was bound to turn heads during his recent public photo shoot in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia.
Passers-by began sneaking pictures on their mobiles merely minutes after Mesfer emerged from his white luxury car onto the cobbled sidewalks of a high-end cafe district in Riyadh, his stylist and photographer in tow.
Such appearances have helped Mesfer, 25, build a massive social media following while blazing a trail for the handful of Saudi male models brave enough to don garments widely seen as appropriate for women only –- thereby pushing the boundaries of their country's famously rigid gender norms.
In the process he has endeared himself to expensive brands keen to profit from a spectacle that would have been unthinkable before Saudi Arabia embarked on a whirlwind series of social reforms ushered in by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Yet Mesfer's approach carries considerable risks.
Along with ardent fans -– mostly bubbly teenage girls who follow him on Snapchat -– the crowd gawking at the recent Riyadh shoot included one irate middle-aged man who got out of his car to denounce Mesfer as "gay", a potential capital offence in Saudi Arabia.
The desert monarchy also traditionally forbids men who "imitate women" or wear women's clothing, and vice versa.
