Saudi Arabia: Women Face Punishment for Checking Husband’s Phone

By Akanksha Sharma

In Saudi Arabia, women checking their husband's phone will now be considered as the violation of privacy as it is not covered in country's Islamic laws, says a senior lawyer Mohammad al-Temyat. Women will face flogging and imprisonment for this offence.

This issue has become an online growing debate which has lead to approx. 35,000 tweets under Arabic hashtag which means "Flogging of A Woman Checking Her Husband's Phone".
Mr. Al-Temyat said in an interview conducted by Makkah newspaper that individuals would be brought before the court if a lawsuit is filed against them.

A woman wearing burqa. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

A female twitter user protested and tweeted "They (men) get annoyed of women 'only' checking her husband's phone while a woman lives all of her life in an 'inquisition'. Whether that is regarding her clothing, sayings or behavior."

Another person named Salim tweeted that in order to make marital life "less chaotic, a husband should share his private life with his spouse so that they can live a life free of suspicion."

Meanwhile, Abdirahman stated significant problems in Saudi community, tweeting "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."

Mr. Al-Temyat told The Independent that he only provided legal advice to the government and described the act of checking someone's phone as Ta'zir offence.

He said, "I would like to clarify that this subject involves the husband and the wife and it is a Ta'zir offence so it is possible that there is a flogging, a fine, imprisonment, just signing a pledge or even nothing."

He further said that offense is not identified as a legal offence, so the punishment will depend on the damaged caused from it.

Akanksha is a student of journalism in New Delhi, currently interning with NewsGram. Twitter: @Akanksha4117

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