Ahmed Al-Ghamdi told Arab News that he has not received any official document or telephone call about his dismissal.

“Until now I haven’t received any official statement or even a phone call and I am still holding the position,” he said on Wednesday.

Reports about Al-Ghamdi’s sacking followed satellite channel Iqra’s Al-Bayinah program.

The most recent episode of the program, called “Wives of the Believers and the Battle of Gender Mixing,” featured both Al-Ghamdi, who supports gender mixing, and scholar Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hamdan who is against it.

The host of the program Abdullah Al-Harithy also invited the controversial Sheikh Muhammad Al-Nijaimi to act as chair.

The episode attracted a number of phone calls from scholars opposing Al-Ghamdi’s views.

Due to the heated debate the participants agreed to continue their arguments in the next episode to be aired on Thursday at 9 p.m.

Al-Ghamdi confirmed that he would appear on the second episode and would present five pieces of religious evidence supporting gender mixing. He added that Al-Harithy was attacking him personally and that he would not want to see that repeated. He also objected to the fact that all phone calls appeared to attack him.

“There was no chance for the audience to understand or listen to my reasons. I wanted to make it clear that going out to work and to be educated in an environment where there are men is fine for women,” he said.

Al-Ghamdi also said that he would not have agreed to have a person act as a judge in the debate, referring to Al-Nijaimi’s appearance.

“I made it clear in the episode that I only take Allah as a judge and what appears in the Qur’an and Sunnah.”