RIYADH: A firebrand dyslexic Saudi cleric came under fire yesterday after he issued a religious edict against women displaying their faeces in public.

Writing in his weekly column in a local newspaper, Sheikh Abdulaziz Abassy declared it “morally repugnant and a sin for women to show their faeces outside of the family house”.

International human rights groups immediately condemned the move, with many campaigners claiming that women should be able to choose for themselves whether or not to cover their faeces outside.

Abassy is no stranger to controversy for his incendiary writing. In 2011 he was criticised by animal rights organisations after issuing a fatwa against all graphical depictions of dogs.