Saudi Arabia Introduces Electronic Tracking Of Women

Via http://www.ibtimes.com/


BY Amrutha Gayathri | November 23 2012 6:25 AM
In what is widely viewed as yet another sexist and repressive act, Saudi Arabia has introduced an electronic tracking system to monitor its female citizens’ cross-border movements. The system is designed to send alerts to men whenever women under their custody, which include wives and daughters, leave the country.

Since last week, some Saudi women’s male guardians have been receiving text messages from immigration authorities, the AFP reported.
The news first surfaced on Twitter when Manal al-Sherif, a Saudi women’s rights activist, was alerted by a couple.

The husband, who was traveling with his wife, received a text from the immigration authorities informing him that his wife had left the international airport in Riyadh, the AFP reported.
To leave the kingdom, Saudi women are required to seek permission from their male guardians, who give consent by signing what is known as the “yellow sheet” at the airport or border, according to the report.
The recent controversy caused by the escape of a Saudi woman to Sweden is believed to have prompted the authorities to implement the system, Al Arabiya reported, citing local media.
It was earlier reported that the woman was converted to Christianity and fled the country with the help of a Lebanese man and a Saudi colleague. She went to Bahrain, and then to Qatar before traveling to Lebanon, local daily Al-Yaum reported in July.
The woman’s father filed a lawsuit against the two men for helping his daughter leave the country without his knowledge. The Lebanese man was reportedly jailed earlier this week in the city of Khobar on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya said.
The move to monitor women’s movements has become a target of Twitter mockery within the kingdom, with a flurry of tweets denouncing the Islamic repression of women.
"Hello Taliban, herewith some tips from the Saudi e-government!" read one post.
"If I need an SMS to let me know my wife is leaving Saudi Arabia, then I'm either married to the wrong woman or need a psychiatrist," tweeted another.
“Saudi Arabia, what if you combined microchips with slave anklets for your women?” Indian author Nilanjana Roy wrote.
However, a report published by Saudi publication Riyadh Bureau said the system has been in place for at least two years, though with a slight difference. In the past, one had to register for the service to receive the notifications.
Saudi women are not allowed to drive in the country, although there are no specific laws that forbid women from driving. The interior minister formally banned driving by women after 47 women were arrested and punished for participating in a demonstration in cars in November 1990.
In June 2011, female activists launched a campaign to defy the ban, which led to the arrest of many of the campaigners, who were forced to sign a pledge that they would never drive again.
A “scholarly” report released last year by the clerics of Majlis al-Ifta al-Aala, the country's highest Islamic council, warned that there would be no more virgins in the country within 10 years of lifting the driving ban because driving would lead to a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce.

Thoughts?

 

Saudi men are insecure.

 

Next they will want to use this...

 

Ridiculous and saddening. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that there are some that see nothing wrong with the stifling treatment and abusive mistreatment of women, and just human beings for that matter. Regardless of cultural differences (which I try my best to respect), there is a line.

But yeah, this txt alerting women's 'guardians' is new info to me.

 

Saudi Arabia isn’t exactly known for its kind treatment of women. That’s just a fact. What’s being described as a new system to electronically monitor women in the country, which has a notoriously strict interpretation of Islamic law, is making the rounds across the Internet. So, are women really being electronically tracked in Saudi Arabia? The answer is yes, but it’s not something that’s new.

The current furor traces back to a number of tweets last week when some Saudi women discovered their husbands were receiving text messages notifying them of their spouses’ entrances to and exits from the country. That’s obviously sketchy, and definitely happening, but it’s been that way for a while now.

According to Riyadh Bureau, this is actually a system that’s been in place since at least 2010. Here’s the quote they use from Eman al-Nafjan:

Apparently they have a new service where they send the male guardian a text every time a “dependent” leaves the country. They don’t state which country the dependent left for but simply state that they did leave. My husband tells me he got the same text when I left for Germany. I am an adult woman that has been earning my own income for over a decade now but according to the Saudi government, I am a dependent till the day I die because of my gender.
So, why is this suddenly news? Folks are supposedly receiving these text messages without ever signing up for them, whereas it was previously an opt-in service from the Ministry of Interior. As it turns out, many of those now receiving these notifications probably signed up to receive them without even realizing it.

In April, the Ministry of Interior introduced an electronic services system which Riyadh Bureau refers to as Absher. The goal of this system was to streamline anything and everything related to dealing with the Ministry. Signing up for it meant the general public didn’t need to deal with actually going to the office, which is typically the goal of these kinds of systems.

One of those services that it was meant to streamline is issuing travel permits to dependents. This is a category into which, as previously stated, Saudi Arabia lumps women. Registering for the service requires a mobile number. You can probably see where this is going. Those signing up probably didn’t read the terms and conditions carefully, as it’s stated there as an example that it’ll notify by SMS when dependents arrive in the country.

There’s no way to avoid this kind of monitoring. It’s happening whether folks receive notification of it or not. If folks really want to bury their heads in the sand, they could always avoid signing up for the service that makes the process smoother, but it’s not going to change whether Saudi women’s movements are tracked.
http://www.geekosystem.com/saudi-electronic-tracking/

 

Oh my god..:s This is saddening, what is even more saddening is that it will always be like this.

 

Why so? I have good hope that in time that society will loosen up as well.

 

Maybe I should be more optimistic, but there is certain places that is very unlikely to loosen up because of certain beliefs. I shouldn't had said "always".

 

It sounds a bit definite but yeah I also can imagine it seems kind of hopeless. I think it's intertwined with the customs of the saudi society though and these cultural traditions may be partly imposed from above (not god of course ). I have a hard time believing all saudi men would be this insecure On a more serious note: because our societies came from a long way too. Think about how in western society men viewed women a 100 years ago for example. Many people would have the same views where it came to equality.

 

That is a fucked up society.

 

Saudi arabia will never loosen up the grip on the treatment of women in there society or any Arab country will thats fact

 

Seems nothing more then an assumption to me. And other arab societies already differ a lot from saudi arabian society. It is unlikely they will all develop the same way in this department.

 

the next worst thing they will do to their women is create some hereditary genetic disease that causes all the women to be mentally retarded. I do agree that most of the saudi men are insecure and that their society is pretty fucked up

 

maybe the U.S. army could go there and liberate them



/sarcasm