The Electronic Tracking Of Saudi Women Is Being Criticized By Western Mindset---2

" This is the technology used to serve the basckwardness in order to keep the women improsoned" said Bishr, a columnist. " It would have been better for the government to keep itslf busy with finding a solution for the women subjected to domestic violence" than to tracking their movement in and out of the country. audi Arabis applies strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, and is the only country in the world where women are not allowd to drive. In June 2011. female activists launched a compaign to defy the ban, with many arrersted for doing so and they were forced to sign a pledge to never drive again. No law specially forbids women in Saudi Arabia from driving, but the interior ministry formally banned them after arresting 47 women and punishing them after a demonstration in cars in November 1990. Last year King Abdullah, a catious reformer, granted women the right to vote and run in the municipal election in 2015, a histoic first step for the country. In January 89-year old monarch appointed Sheikh Abdullatif Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, a moderate, to head the notorious religious police commission, which enforces the kingdom's severe version of Sharia law. Following appointment Sheikh banned members of commission from harrassing Saudi womenover their behaviour and attire, raising hopes a more linient force will ease the strict social constraints in the country. "Saudi women are treated as minors throughout their lives, even if they hold high positions, said Saud Shammari, a liberal activist, who believes, "there can never be reform in the country without changing the status of the women and treasting them " as equal to men". But that seems a very long way. The kingdom enforces very strict rules governing mixing bwtween the sexes, while women are forced to wear a veil, a black cloak or abaya that covers them from head to toe except hands and faces (most of the women put on gloves on hands and glasses on eyes). The many restrictions on women have led to high rates of female unemployment, officially estimated at around 30 percent. In October local media published a justice ministry directive allowing all women lawyers who have law degrees and have spent three years working in lawyer's office to plead the case in the court. But, the ruling which was to take effect this month, has not been implemented.