Saudi women should not have to wear the loose-fitting abaya robe to shroud their bodies in public, a senior cleric said, in the latest sign of a far-reaching liberalization drive in Saudi Arabia.

According to the UK’s Guardian, Sheikh Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the council of senior scholars – the kingdom’s highest religious body, “more than 90 percent of pious Muslim women in the Muslim world do not wear abayas.”  

“So we should not force people to wear abayas,” he told a television programme broadcast on Friday.

Under Saudi law, women are required to wear the Abaya in public at all times. 

The Guardian reported that until now however, the government has not said it will change the law but this is the first comment in this regard by a senior cleric. 

A series of reforms in favor of women have recently been introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Last month Saudi women were allowed to enter a football stadium for the first time to watch a game. This came just four months after a long-standing ban on women driving was lifted.

The Guardian reported that Mutlaq’s comment sparked a host of reaction on social media, including from other clerics who backed his statement.

One Saudi Twitter user commented: “Chastity and morality should not be tied to a piece of cloth.”