THE FORMER HEAD of Mecca’s religious police faced death threats and a lawsuit in December after his wife appeared with him on a popular chat show wearing makeup with her face uncovered. He told the audience that Islam does not require women to hide their faces behind a niqab in public, attracting praise from reformists and scorn from hardliners including Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh who urged him to ask for repentance from God.