Peanut Gallery– Ladies, does your husband know where you are, whom you are with, and what you are doing? Did you ask his permission before you left your home today? Do you have a male driver to escort you?

(I know, some of you might like your own driver. The rest- not so much.)

Sound surreal… not in Saudi Arabia.
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Electronic tracking: new constraint for Saudi women – FRANCE 24

Click here for full story: http://www.france24.com/en/20121122-electronic-tracking-new-constraint-saudi-women

AFP – Denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving, women in Saudi Arabia are now monitored by an electronic system that tracks any cross-border movements.

Since last week, Saudi women’s male guardians began receiving text messages on their phones informing them when women under their custody leave the country, even if they are travelling together.

Manal al-Sherif, who became the symbol of a campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy a driving ban, began spreading the information on Twitter, after she was alerted by a couple.

The husband, who was travelling with his wife, received a text message from the immigration authorities informing him that his wife had left the international airport in Riyadh.

“The authorities are using technology to monitor women,” said columnist Badriya al-Bishr, who criticised the “state of slavery under which women are held” in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Women are not allowed to leave the kingdom without permission

Continue reading “Ladies- give thanks… you don’t live in Saudi Arabia (unless, of course, you do)” →