This School Was Reportedly Fined A Ton Of Money For Having Rainbows Painted On It

The administrator of Riyadh's Talaee Al-Noor International School is reportedly in jail awaiting trial for the school's apparently overly festive paint job.

A school in Saudi Arabia has been fined more than $25,000, with authorities claiming the rainbows on its building were "emblems of homosexuality," according to a Twitter account associated with the agency that enforces the country's religious law.

هيئة الأمر بالمعروف والبلدية والأمارة تزيل الشعار وتغرم "مدرسة أجنبية"في الرياض بمبلغ١٠٠الف بعد وضعها شعار المثليين

The tweet, from the Saudi Society Channel, also showed that the Talee al-Noor International School has been repainted. The Saudi Society Channel is one of the Twitter accounts associated with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the agency that enforces Islamic law in the country.

A second tweet said, "They sent the school administrator responsible for the emblem to jail in preparation to refer the case to the Bureau of Investigation and the general prosecutor."

تم احالة المسؤول في المدرسة الذي وضع الشعار إلى السجن تمهيداً لإحالته إلى هيئة التحقيق والأدعاء العام

The incident does not appear to have been widely reported in Saudi Arabia, but Saeed Matooq, editor of one of the leading news outlets broadcasting in Saudi Arabia, the Arab Channel, appeared to mock the action against the school when retweeting the pictures.

"This is a Saudi school painted normally. They said it is marketing for homosexuality, and then formed a committee and erased the colors. My question is: did the colors come first or did homosexuality?"

هذه مدرسة سعوديةوضعت ألواناً بشكل طبيعي، قالوا انها تروج للمثليةثم شكلوا لجنة وحذفوها سؤال :الألوان اول والاالمثلية؟

Homosexuality and trans people are routinely punished by flogging in Saudi Arabia, and the country's authorities are among the most aggressive in the region in targeting LGBT people online and on mobile hookup apps. In July of 2014, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to 450 lashes and three years in prison for soliciting sex with other men on Twitter, according to a U.S. State Department human rights report, and 35 men alleged to be gay were arrested this April in a raid in the city of Jeddah.

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