Akibat syariah yang dilaksanakan....
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[CNN]
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Saudi Arabia's unsolicited monitoring of women's travels draws activists'
outrage - CNN.com
By Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN
November 26, 2012 -- Updated 0216 GMT (1016 HKT)
CNN.com
A fully veiled Saudi woman walks into a mall in Riyadh. Women's
A fully veiled Saudi woman walks into a mall in Riyadh. Women's "guardians" are
notified whenever one leaves the country.
(CNN) -- When word started spreading last week that Saudi women -- already some
of the most oppressed and restricted in the world -- were being monitored
electronically as they left the country, activists were quick to express their
outrage.
"It's very shameful," said Manal Al-Sharif, who became an icon of female
empowerment in 2011 after defying the conservative kingdom's driving ban and
encouraging other Saudi women to do the same.
Al-Sharif was one of the first prominent Saudis to start tweeting about the
electronic monitoring issue -- describing the shock experienced by a couple she
knew after the husband received a text message alerting him his wife had left
Saudi Arabia, even though they were traveling out of the country together.
What surprised and disturbed them most, Al-Sharif told CNN, was the fact that
the husband had not registered with the Interior Ministry to begin receiving
such notifications.
"It shows how women are still being treated as minors," added Al-Sharif. She
went on to explain how, even though a notification system has actually been in
place since 2010, before last week, a male guardian would have had to
specifically request the service from the country's Interior Ministry before
receiving such messages.
In recent years, much has been made of the fact that Saudi Arabia is the sole
remaining country in which women still have not been given the right to drive.
But restrictions experienced by Saudi females extend to far more than just
getting behind the wheel. In the deeply conservative kingdom, a woman is not
allowed to go to school, get a job, or even travel outside the country without
first obtaining the permission of her male "guardian," or mahram.
Paris Hilton causes dust-up in Mecca
A Saudi city exclusively for women
In Saudi Arabia, every woman has a male guardian -- traditionally her father,
husband or brother.
But the country's guardianship system doesn't just apply to women -- underage
children, as well as foreign workers, also must be granted permission before
being allowed outside the country's borders.
In the past few years, the country's Interior Ministry has been introducing
"e-government" initiatives to simplify tracking of dependents with technology
and to make it easier for guardians to allow their dependents to leave the
country.
One such program was introduced in 2010 -- guardians could sign up for a
service that would notify them electronically once any of their dependents, be
they, wives, children or workers, had left the country. The information would
be sent out once any of these dependents had their passports scanned and
crossed any of the country's borders.
It was only over the course of the last week, however, that text messages
started getting sent even to men who hadn't signed up for this service.
Opinion: Fairness needed for U.S. pregnant workers
Eman Al Nafjan, a Saudi writer and blogger, told CNN that the electronic
monitoring controversy is a complicated issue that has been somewhat
misunderstood -- that this is simply the latest iteration of an antiquated
guardianship system Saudi women have had to live with for far too long.
"Why is it being technologically implemented and being updated?" asked Al
Nafjan. "Why is it not being phased out? That's the real question."
And it's a question that's been asked more and more in the last several years
by activists who say Saudi Arabia's strict guardianship laws only serve to
infantilize women and strip them of any freedoms.
For Al Nafjan, the electronic monitoring is a serious matter, but one that has
overshadowed something far more important:
"This (male guardianship) system enables exploitation of women -- it's
government-sanctioned exploitation," said Al Nafjan, adding how Saudi laws
enable men to exert complete control over their female dependents.
"It's a power that's being used over women," explained Al Nafjan, who strongly
advocates ending the guardianship system. "Women are not free. No matter how
old you are, you're always a minor. It's almost like slavery. Guardianship is
practically ownership."
Al-Sharif, for her part, wondered why there aren't e-government services in
place in Saudi Arabia to assist women who are in trouble, "to help women go
file complaints against their abusers if their actual guardians won't go with
them."
"Women should use this to make some noise," added Al-Sharif, "rock the boat,
and say enough is enough."
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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