Saudi Arabia has implemented an electronic system for tracking women

Since last week, the system of sending SMS alerts about women who cross the border has started to operate in Saudi Arabia. When you enter the passport data of a woman at the border, the computer system automatically sends a message to her husband.

The system works automatically and the notification is sent even if the husband travels with his wife. A woman in Saudi Arabia does not have the right to travel without her husband’s permission and does not have the right to drive a car (in 2011, the Sharia Council of Theologians stated that driving the car leads to its moral degradation).

A Saudi woman cannot cross the border without a so-called “yellow card” from her husband. The introduction of an electronic monitoring system complements the current rules. Now even the woman who received permission from her husband to go abroad is tracked at the border.

Critics of the new alert system say that this attitude towards women violates human rights. Some people joke that it would be easier for every woman to introduce a microchip with a GPS transmitter, so that the husband would track her whereabouts constantly, and not just at the border.
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International experts have long expressed concern about the lack of civil liberties among women in Saudi Arabia. According to human rights activists, the situation of women in the country can be compared with the situation of minors. For example, every single adult woman should have a close male relative as a “guardian.” His consent is required for hiring a woman, entering an educational institution, and providing medical care. The behavior of women in society is monitored by religious police (mutava).

However, in a rich country there is no mass outrage. Moreover, there is even no objective evidence that most women would like to change the situation.