Comics and music shows in Saudi Arabia draw rebuke from clerics

Spectators attend Comic Con expo in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia February 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ali al-Qarni

RIYADH (Reuters) - A comic show and a recent pop concert have drawn rebuke from powerful religious figures and social media users in Saudi Arabia this week, highlighting the sensitivity of cultural reforms underway in the conservative kingdom.

Thousands of Saudis - including women - decked out in costumes and face paint attended the country's first-ever Comic Con in Jeddah on Sunday. The sexes rarely mix in public in a country which adheres to the austere Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam.