Saudi Performer Arrested for Dabbing at Music Festival
By Sam Sodomsky.
Abdallah Al Shahani—a Saudi TV host, actor, and singer—was arrested at a music festival in Taif, Saudi Arabia for dabbing, the BBC reports. The popular dance move was recently banned by the Interior Ministry’s National Commission for Combatting Drug Use, due to its supposed connections to marijuana use. In a poster shared on the organization’s Twitter earlier this month, they warned about the “dangers” that dabbing inflicts “on the youth and society,” according to the BBC’s translation. After a video of Al Shahani performing the dance move began circulating, the performer apologized on social media, saying that he had performed it “unintentionally and spontaneously.”
This story originally appeared on Pitchfork.
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