Saudi Women to Face Jail Time & Flogging For Checking Husband’s Phone without Permission

In Saudi Arabia, it has become an offence for a wife to check her husband’s phone without his permission.

According to Independent.co.uk, a new law has been enacted in Saudi Arabia against women who check their husband’s phone without his permission, as the law says they will be flogged and imprisoned if they do.

Mohammad al-Temyat, a senior lawyer, and also a  member of the Saudi government’s Family Security Program, said the offence would be prosecuted as a violation of privacy because it is not covered in the country’s Islamic laws, adding that women can be brought before a court if a lawsuit is filed against them.

He stated that he worked with the government only on a voluntary basis, providing legal advice, describing the law on checking someone’s phone as Ta’zir offence, coming under judicial discretion because it has no definition or prescribed punishment under Islam.

The issue has been a source of growing debate in the kingdom, with high-profile cases leading to almost 35,000 tweets under a trending Arabic hashtag which translates as “Flogging of A Woman Checking Her Husband’s Phone”.

Read comments from social media users on the new law…

A female twitter user said: ”They [men] get annoyed of women ‘only’ checking her husband’s phone, whilst a woman lives all of her life in an ‘inquisition’. Whether that is regarding her clothing, sayings or behaviour.”

Another person, identified as Salim tweeted saying that in order to make marital life “less complicated, a husband should share his private life with his life so they can live a life free from suspicion and doubt.”

On the other hand, Abdirahman mentions other significant problems in the Saudi community, stating: ”what about a man who beats his wife? What about a man who does not give his wife her rights? The law should do something about this too.”

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