CBNNews.com - RIYAD, Saudi Arabia - Saudi clerics want women banned from appearing on television, newspapers or magazines; they also want music banned from television.

The clerics appealed to King Abdullah's newly appointed information minister.

"We have great hope that this media reform will be accomplished by you," the clerics wrote to Information Minister Abdel Aziz Khoja.

"We have noticed how well-rooted perversity is in the Ministry of Information and Culture, in television, radio, press, culture clubs and the book fair," their statement read.

"No Saudi women should appear on TV no matter what the reason. No images of women should appear in Saudi newspapers and magazines," they stated.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, told reporters he was baffled by their logic.

Kouchner said he sat between two Saudi women during a luncheon, one a surgeon and the other a journalist.

The French foreign minister found it odd that while one is entrusted to perform surgery and the other to write, both are prevented from driving a car.

Source: The Associated Press