Saudis see no scandal over Michelle Obama’s missing headscarf

President Barack Obama's hastily arranged trip to Saudi Arabia was intended to shore up relations with a key US ally. But it was the attire of the first lady that was the focus of much of the discussion on social media in the US.

Obama cut short a high-profile trip to India to fly to Riyadh on Tuesday to pay respects to the family of the late King Abdullah and meet with his successor, King Salman.

First lady Michelle Obama dressed conservatively for the visit in loose black trousers, a blue tunic and a long, brightly coloured jacket. But she did not wear a head scarf, as required of the kingdom's female subjects.

Many Saudi women appear in public in a face-covering veil known as the niqab, and some Twitter users appeared to take offence, even though the kingdom does not require foreign women to abide by the same rules.

A number of tweets included photographs of the first lady wearing a head scarf during a visit to Indonesia in 2010 and asked why she did not do the same in Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam's holiest sites, Mecca and Medina.

The whole issue appears to have attracted significantly more attention in the US than in Saudi Arabia, where officials are accustomed to receiving Western visitors who do not veil.