Manama: A Saudi religious scholar said that he supported chemical castration to combat sexual harassment or sex crimes.
“Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) had banned castration, but if there is a chemical solution to make offenders lose interest in sex, then I believe castration should be allowed,” Saud Bin Abdullah Al Fanisan, a former dean of the Sharia College at the Riyadh-based Imam University, said.
Chemical castration is performed through injection or tablets to remove sexual interest and make it impossible for a person to perform sexual acts.
Reports said that chemical castration that reduces circulating testosterone to very low levels could be reversed by not taking the drugs.
In his statement, the Saudi scholar did not specify whether the chemical castration of perpetrators of sexual crimes should be temporary or permanent, local media reported.
The scholar added that even though anti sexual harassment laws existed throughout the world, they did not succeed in finding a lasting solution for the issue.
“Offenders are usually people whose sense of self-discipline and consciousness is weak. I opt for chemical castration because it seems that it has a potent effect on offenders. I would of course rather opt of castration and support a law if it could really deter people from committing sexual crimes,” he told Rotana Gulf television channel on Monday evening.
In 1996, California became the first state in the US to authorise the use of either chemical or surgical castration for certain sexual offenders who were being released from prison into the community.
Although the legislation stirred a huge debate over its merit, eight other states later enacted laws that allowed some form of castration for sexual offenders under consideration for parole or probation.
South Korea in May 2012 introduced the chemical castration punishment for offenders whose sexual crime victims are less than 15 years old.
