Job Discussion Forums

[double agent]

September 30, 2004

Grand mufti of Saudi Arabia slams
trading in camera-equipped mobile phones


The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia has condemned as un-Islamic trading in camera-equipped mobile phones which can take �illicit� pictures, Al-Madinah newspaper reported Wednesday. Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh said such phones �could be exploited to photograph and spread vice in the community.�

The denunciation came amid reports that there is no judicial law in Saudi Arabia that bars the use of or trading in such phones. Local newspapers quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying that police are more concerned about how camera-equipped mobile phones are being used than whether someone owns it or not.

He said restrictions on such phones at private functions such as those held in exhibition halls are the responsibility of the organizers of such events.

Camera-equipped mobile phones are apparently widely used in the Kingdom and are often the center of controversy. Two Saudi women were badly beaten by other female guests at a wedding party earlier this month when they were seen using a mobile phone to photograph the segregated celebration. (menareport.com)

LINK
http://www.albawaba.com/headlines/TheNews.php3?action=story&sid=286001&lang=e&dir=



The one who smelt it delt it.... CHEESE

[dmb]

I used to teach 18/19 year old Qataris. Their favourite hobby was going to City Centre and taking photographs of western women(no headscrarves required)

[double agent]

That makes me wonder if they then swap the photos
like we did with Hockey Cards as kids.

Got �em Got �em Need it Need it Got �em...
Take two of these for one of those...
Got �em Got �em oh...the precious...how much for that one.
Give you my whole collection for that one.

children will be children

[scot47]

These mobiles are illegal but of course saudis have them. They arefreely available in Bahrain.
There was a recent court case. Two Saudi teenagers organised the rape of a saudi girl by a Nigerian driver and took pics on their mobiles as the act was being comkmitted. these were then sent to friernds and realtives.

I have not heard what has happened to them but I can guess what the verdict and the sentence will be.

[Stephen Jones]

The Saudis were hardly teenagers. The matter is before the Courts at the moment. The death sentence has been asked for for the two Saudis, and jail and lashes for the Nigerian driver.

The camera phones are apparently legal. The police have stated they have no legal basis to confiscate them. Of course that doesn't stop them being confiscated by customs on occasion.

Not quite as much a mess as the famous Jeddah bicycle saga or the Riyadh night restaurant licenses, but still a legal jumble.

[Paul in Saudi]

OK, so tell me the famous bicycle story. I have never heard it.

[Stephen Jones]

Sometime in the early nineties the governor of Jeddah decided that one of the main causes of crime were - bicycles. It appeared that illegal immigrants would be selling stuff in the street and then when the police came along to arrest them, they woudl pick up their stuff and hop on to a bicycle and dive down an alley leaving the Saudi police huffing and puffing well behind them.

The only problem was that, whilst he had the power to ban people riding bicycles on the street, he didn't have the power to ban bicycles being sold, which came under another ministry. So for various weeks what would happen was that fond parents would buy thier kid a bicycle for Eid, only to have him rushing into the house in tears an hour or so later because the cops had confisicated it. This went on for various months before somebody higher up intervened.

I told this story to one of my classes a few years later, and received a howl of protest from the students who claimed it was made-up anti-Saudi propaganda. Luckily one of the students came to my rescue: "it's all true," he said. "I'm from Jeddah and the cops took my bike on my twelfth birthday, and they've still got it in the police station five years later!"

If you ask for it tomorrow I'll tell you about the Riyadh night licenses.

[dmb]

ok, Stephen. tell us about the Riyadh night licenses