Minister needs approval to appear on TV

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's first woman cabinet minister cannot appear on television without permission, a newspaper quoted her as saying yesterday.

Noura al-Faiz's appointment in February as deputy minister for women's education was hailed as a pinnacle step for the integration of women into conservative Saudi Arabian society where a puritanical form of Islam bans women from driving, voting and mixing with unrelated men.

"I don't take my veil off and I will not appear on television unless it is allowed for us to do so," Faiz told the daily Shamss, which published a picture of the deputy minister wearing a headscarf with her face showing.