JEDDAH, 4 January 2003 — A women-only wedding celebration ended in a dramatic fistfight here when invitees caught one of the young women taking shots of another with her mobile phone camera while they were all dancing together.
The incident, which took place on Wednesday night at one of the city’s biggest wedding halls, was brought to an abrupt end by the arrival of the local police. They had been called by the host family after they discovered that the young woman was sending the photos she had taken to her boyfriend who, it turned out, was the brother of one of the photographed women.
A woman who was present at the ceremony told Arab News that the young female photographer and her mother had not been invited to the wedding and in fact were completely unknown to the host family.
“They kept roaming around the hall with their high-tech gadget, photographing various ladies,” she explained. “She took a picture of one lady and immediately sent it to her boyfriend, who happened to be the brother of the lady in the photograph. As soon as he received the photo on his mobile, he called his sister and told her what was going on.”
The sister and other members of the host family started looking for the stranger. After they found her, along with her mother, they grabbed the mobile phone and destroyed it on the stage in front of the guests, who cheered as the mobile phone was turned into pieces, according to another attendee.
Local police took the young woman and her mother to the police station for questioning.
Although the Saudi government has banned mobile phones that have cameras, they are in high demand here. They are brought from other GCC countries and sold secretly for double their original price.
In another part of the city, officials are investigating an incident involving six Saudi female students because they were in possession of a mobile phone camera. A teacher caught one of the girls taking photographs of the others during class.
Ahmed Al Qahatani, a police officer in the Mashrafah district of Jeddah, told Arab News a number of reports have recently been filed at his station complaining of people who are using such mobile cameras.
“Most of the calls we receive are from shopping malls and schools,” he said. “We usually confiscate the phones and make violators sign a pledge that they will not repeat the offense.”
