Dubai: The highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia, where a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, is applied, has launched an official website for fatwas, or religious edicts.

The site (www.alifta.com) aims at providing "quick access to fatwas on an official website," says a committee for research and edicts affiliated with the Council of Senior Ulema (Muslim scholars), which operates the site.

The site features edicts issued by a number of official religious scholars, devoting a section to the former head of the council and mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz. Bin Baz, who died in 1999, was known for opposing the empowerment of women, who are subject to a host of restrictions in the oil-rich kingdom.

In 1991, he issued a fatwa prohibiting women from driving cars. Visitors to the new website will be able to ask questions on various topics and get replies from the ulema.

Saudi Arabia is home to Islam's holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina and applies a rigorous doctrine of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. The launch of the website is apparently a response to the issuing of fatwas by Saudi and other Muslim scholars that clash with the official line of the Saudi religious establishment led by the Council of Senior Ulema.