The Religious Policeman

...or how a camera cellphone can lose you your university place and any chance of a career.

Snapshots of unveiled colleagues land Saudi woman out of university

RIYADH (AFP) - A Saudi woman has been expelled from her university for taking pictures of unveiled colleagues with a camera-equipped mobile phone and posting them on the Internet, a newspaper reported.

This was the first case of its kind in Dammam in the Eastern Province, according to Al-Yaum, although newspapers had earlier reported cases of girls kicked out of their schools or universities in other parts of the conservative Muslim kingdom for using the banned mobiles to photograph colleagues.


The unnamed student in Dammam had taken pictures of colleagues "not wearing the abaya (long black robe) and with their heads uncovered, publishing them through an Internet website" and prompting complaints from parents, Al-Yaum said.


More than 50 other students at the same female university are being investigated for carrying the banned mobiles, it said.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm hearing reports of this happening from colleges all over the place. The Religious Policemen are getting really worked up over this. Unfortunately the poor girls involved are getting their career options closed down, not that they had many in the first place. Become a teacher, or, if you've really got connexions, work in a Womens' branch of a bank.

This reminds me of when TV satellite dishes first came out. They were banned of course. Some Cops even went round shooting at them! Nowadays you see them everywhere.