While Saudia Arabia’s government could have spent their time and money figuring out how to aid domestic violence, it has, instead, implemented a new technology which monitors Saudi Arabian women’s movements. If a Saudi Arabian woman crosses an international border, her male guardian will now receive a text message informing him that the woman under his custody has left the country. The text message is sent from  immigration authorities as soon as a Saudi woman is granted permission to leave the kingdom. Women in the extremist kingdom have already been denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned entirely from driving. 

A woman in Saudi Arabia is not allowed to leave the country until her male guardian signs the “yellow sheet,” which is a sheet of consent, at the airport or border. As though this wasn’t enough, the male guardian will now receive a text message confirming that the woman under his custody has crossed an international boarder. Saudi Arabian columnist Badriya al-Bishr went on to say, “This is technology used to serve backwardness in order to keep women imprisoned.” The movement has been condemned by Saudi men and women alike on Twitter, which has served as a rare chance for freedom of expression in the country. Tweeters joked saying, “Why don’t we just install a microchip into our women to track them around?” And, “Why don’t you cuff your women with tracking ankle bracelets too?”

[Via Raw Story]

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Claudia McNeilly writes for the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter at @claudiamcneilly

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