A post by Pat
Under Saudi Arabia’s “guardianship” laws, a woman is a dependent of a male relation throughout her life. She needs a man’s permission for just about everything that would be considered a human right. She cannot freely do such things as drive, be in public places, marry, open bank accounts or travel without her guardian’s consent. Modernization is resisted socially in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries while new innovations in technology are swiftly adopted. Technology is a curse as well as a blessing in repressive societies. What should be liberating is often used to enforce repression.
Keeping Saudi women tagged by text
Want to know whether your wife, sister or daughter has left the county? Well, in Saudi Arabia, there’s an app for that. Reportedly, male guardians or mahrams in Saudi Arabia are now receiving text message notifications when their female charges leave the country unaccompanied. …
According to Wajeha al-Huwaider, a Saudi female activist, when she left the kingdom for a holiday with her family, her husband received a text message from the foreign ministry notifying him that she had departed.
“It is sad how Saudis use technology in a way not intended to be used for,” she told The Media Line. “In Saudi Arabia, technology brings more restrictions and misery. They use it to have more control over people’s lives, especially women.”
…it is nevertheless an indication that the authorities are becoming more inventive and resourceful with technology. Just as expatriates in the country are tethered to their native sponsors, women are tethered to their guardians, who, no matter how laissez-faire they may be, must still go through the bureaucratic rigmarole of granting permission for their female dependents to leave the country unaccompanied. Even then, the permission has to be renewed regularly. There is little scope for blanket licences from mahrams – ostensibly to ensure that they are not abused.
The mobile phone is also a means to thwart the social separation of the sexes.
Gender segregation has spawned a culture of excessive telecommunication. Bluetooth usage (to exchange details between men and women anonymously) on phones was commonplace in Saudi Arabia before mobile owners in the west had any use for the tool. In a country of early adopters and super-users, people usually have more than one mobile phone to separate friends, family and professional contacts. Before pay-as-you go arrived on the scene, my female friends sometimes had their chauffeurs procure more mobile phone numbers in their own names so that the bill would not be sent to their father’s home address.
Notification of a woman leaving the country is redundant since she couldn’t have gotten as far as the gate without a man’s consent. Just one last reminder of her place I guess.
It’s time to send a message to the Saudi rulers.
Wow, a 13th century society using 21st century technology-to impose 13th century beliefs and customs. They behead people for practicing “witchcraft” and other non-violent “offenses,” treat women like slaves and forbid any religion but Islam. How are they better than Iran or North Korea? Why are they considered to be our “friends?”
Can those women use that app to automatically send a text message that says, “So long, sucker! I’m converting to Christianity and getting asylum!”
🙂