Under veils, Saudis get plastic surgery

Religion covers every facet of life in Saudi Arabia, including plastic surgery. Nujaimi draws his guidelines from the consensus that was reached three years ago when clergymen and plastic surgeons met in Riyadh to determine whether cosmetic procedures violate the Islamic tenet against tampering God’s creation.

The verdict was that it’s halal (sanctioned) to augment unusually small breasts, fix features that are causing a person grief, or reverse damage from an accident.

But undergoing an unsafe procedure or changing the shape of a “perfect nose’’ just to resemble a singer or actress is haram (forbidden).

“I get calls from many, many women asking about cosmetic procedures,’’ Nujaimi told the Associated Press in an interview. “The presentations we got from the doctors made me better equipped to give them guidance.’’

In recent years, plastic surgery centers with gleaming facades have sprung up on streets in Riyadh, the capital. Their front-page newspaper ads promise laser treatments, hair implants, and liposuction.

From rarities 10 years ago, the centers now number 35 and are “saturating the Saudi market,’’ Ahmed al-Otaibi, a Saudi skin specialist, was quoted as saying in the Al-Hayat newspaper.

Otaibi cited a study according to which liposuction, breast augmentations, and nose jobs are the most popular among women, while men go for hair implants and nose jobs.

Saudi women see nothing unusual about undergoing plastic surgery and then covering it up in robes and veils.

Sarah, an unmarried 28-year-old professional woman, pointed out in an interview that underneath their robes, women go in for designer clothes and trendy haircuts to be flaunted at women’s gatherings, shown to their husbands, and exposed on trips abroad.

“We attend a lot of private occasions, and we also travel,’’ said Sarah, who declined to give her full name to protect her privacy.

She said she is contemplating having 22 surgeries, including a breast lift, enhancing her rear, and reversing her down-turned lips into a smile.

She also wants the lips of Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe, and less flare to her nostrils, though her plastic surgeon has refused to do the nose because he doesn’t think it needs altering.

Ayman al-Sheikh, a Saudi doctor who spent almost 14 years in the United States, most of them at Harvard, said demand in Saudi Arabia is in line with increased global demand. But what he sees more of in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, are customers for procedures that enhance the face to the point where it no longer looks natural.

The trend is being set by entertainers whose pouty lips, chiseled midriffs, and enhanced breasts are seen on TV across the Arab world.

Not all customers seek religious sanction, and not all surgeons abide by the clerics’ guidelines, so a woman is apt to pick a surgeon depending on how liberal he is.