Private-event videos on social media irk women

Saudi women have expressed concern over the increasing circulation of video clips and photos of private, women-only events on social media.
Such photos or footage, which are often secretly recorded by other attendees on their smartphones, may lead to family disputes or even divorce in an ultra-conservative society.
Sara Abdullah, an employee, said women resort to many ploys to smuggle mobile phones into wedding halls.
“Some women hide their mobile phones under their clothes or even inside their shoes while getting in,” she said. “They could simply want to have photos of the event, which they have no intention of sharing, or actually want to harm others by posting their videos on YouTube to tarnish their reputation.”
Adilah Al-Amri, a housewife, attributed the unethical publication of private events at weddings to stolen mobile phones. “The theft of mobile phones is on the increase these days.”
Fatima Al-Falqi, who runs a photo studio, said guests often want to capture clips and snapshots for their own personal record. “Outsiders may be to blame for these types of invasion of privacy,” she said, adding that confidentiality is top of her list.
Al-Falqi urges wedding organizers to trust only reputed photographers to capture images of their wedding.
“Professional photographers would not knowingly violate the privacy of wedding events because a lack of reliability would harm their reputation and their profits,” she said.
Muhammad Al-Nujaimi, a member of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, said women are not allowed to take photos of other women without their consent.
“Publishing pictures, whether purposefully or inadvertently, is a violation of women’s honor, so I discourage taking photos at any wedding event,” he said.
Telecommunications engineer Ziyad Ata said clips could be copied from stolen mobile phones since smartphones can function as digital cameras. “However, there are also ways to stop the circulation of illegally posted clippings with the help of authorities,” he said.
Legal expert Abdul Aziz Dashnan said such forms of cyber crime are dealt with at the King Fahd Satellite Telecommunications City. “Perpetrators could be imprisoned for up to 15 years and fined SR1 million.”