Four Saudi Arabian ministers have suggested the Kingdom-wide ban on cameraphones be repealed, due to the overwhelming influx of phones equipped with cameras —and perhaps as an acknowledgment of the backwards thinking that prompted the ban in the first place. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to have a ban on the devices, initiated in October of 2002 as a step to protect the “modesty and chastity” of women and girls in compliance with Islamic Shari’a law, and reinforced in September after video of a rape was captured by cameraphone (yes, the recording of a rape prompted them to ban cameras).
This has prompted a new crackdown on camera phones – and not just by the authorities. In September two Saudi female wedding guests were beaten by other guests as they tried to photograph the celebration using a mobile phone. The inference is that they were attacked by other women, as Saudi weddings are women-only affairs – except for the bridegroom, of course.
Saudi ministers urge removal of camera phone ban [TheRegister]
