Wanita Saudi Dipantau Suami dengan Pelacak Elektronik
Saudi Women Being Electronically Tracked by Their Husbands
Editor : Mohamad Aslan
Translator : Dhelia Gani
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SUAMI-SUAMI di Arab Saudi sekarang memantau kegiatan istri mereka di luar negeri dengan alat pelacak elektronik.
Perempuan di negara yang sangat konservatif telah ditolak haknya untuk bepergian tanpa persetujuan dari suami serta dilarang mengemudikan mobil.
Namun kini, di kerajaan kaya minyak tersebut wanita dimatai-matai oleh sistem elektronik yang bekerja setiap melintasi perbatasan.
Sejak pekan lalu, suami dari wanita Saudi mulai menerima pesan teks jika istrinya meninggalkan negara itu bahkan jika mereka bepergian bersama-sama.
"Pihak berwenang menggunakan teknologi untuk memantau wanita, kata kolumnis Badriya al-Bishr, yang mengkritik kerajaan dinilai menerapkan 'situasi semacam perbudakan terhadap wanita'.
Perempuan Saudi dilarang meninggalkan negaranya tanpa izin suami atau wali pria, biasanya suami atau ayah, yang harus memberikan persetujuan dengan menandatangani apa yang dikenal sebagai 'lembaran kuning' di bandar udara atau perbatasan.
Langkah otoritas Saudi langsung dikecam melalui media sosial Twitter, seperti dikutip The Sun.
Arab Saudi menerapkan aturan ketat dari syariah, atau hukum Islam dan merupakan satu-satunya negara di dunia yang melarang wanita mengemudikan mobil.
Pada Juni 2011, aktivis perempuan menggelar kampanye untuk menentang larangan tersebut, dan mereka ditangkap lantas diwajibkan menandatangani perjanjian untuk tidak mengemudi lagi.
HUSBANDS in Saudi Arabia are now monitoring their wives' movements out of the country using electronic tracking.
Women in the ultra conservative country are already denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving.
But now women in oil rich kingdom are being spied on by an electronic system that picks-up any cross-border movements.
Since last week, Saudi women’s male guardians began receiving text messages if their women left the country - even if they are travelling together.
“The authorities are using technology to monitor women,” said columnist Badriya al-Bishr, who criticised the “state of slavery under which women are held” in the kingdom.
Saudi women are not allowed to leave the kingdom without permission from their male guardian, usually husband or father, who must give consent by signing what is known as the “yellow sheet” at the airport or border.
The move by the Saudi authorities was swiftly condemned on social network Twitter.
Saudi Arabia applies a strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, and is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
In June 2011, female activists launched a campaign to defy the ban, with many arrested for doing so and forced to sign a pledge they will never drive again.
