JEDDAH, 22 July 2004 — Many women are refusing to attend wedding ceremonies, fearing other guests may use cell phone cameras, commonly sold on the Saudi black market, to take their pictures and distribute the images over the Internet. Many women have reported being secretly photographed inside wedding halls and later seeing their pictures on the Internet.
Um Badr is a mother of three. She decided to reduce the number of wedding ceremonies she attended because of the problem of cell phone cameras. “The problem is that these cell phones have found their way into the hands of irresponsible teenagers,” she said. She wondered why parents allowed these kids to have these types of phones. The problem, for her, is not the cell phones but the people using them.
“I stopped going to wedding parties after I heard many stories of girls’ pictures appearing on Internet sites. I definitely do not want some sick person to take my picture and distribute it on the Internet,” she said.
Um Abdul Rahman said, “My friend got divorced because her picture was circulated on e-mails. Her picture was taken inside a wedding hall in Jeddah. Her husband blamed her for the incident and divorced her.”
She asked if destroying families by separating couples was what these sick people wanted. Parents should not allow their kids to lay their hands on these camera phones, she added.
Safiya, a university student, said, “These cell phones are creating so many problems and they should be banned. Saudi society and women are very sensitive about someone taking and distributing photos of them. I was very satisfied with the Ministry of Education’s decision to expel any student with a cell phone camera. I do not want someone to take my photo. We are having the same problem here at the university. Many students take photos of other students on their mobiles and threaten to distribute them. Now the decision to expel students carrying these cell phones will frighten them.”
She also talked about an e-mail that was circulating on the Internet photos from female student rooms at the university. The e-mail showed photos of rooms, hallways and kitchens inside the women’s dormitory. “Imagine if that female student who took these photos was secretly photographing students in their beds when they were sleeping? Imagine how much damage these photos could do for the female student?”
Khalil Sulaiman, manager of a wedding hall in Jeddah, said, “The best way to stop the cell phone camera issue is to have a decision issued by authorities to officially ban them from wedding halls. We tried to search guests for cell phone cameras because we did not want any problems. We end up having fights with guests who do not want to be searched. We were doing this on our own accord to protect guests from facing problems. If there were an official decision, it would strengthen our position.
“I heard about many cases where female guests were talking on their cell phone cameras and other guests thought that she was taking photos of them. They ended up having a major fight in a place that was supposed to host a happy occasion,” he said.
