The oppressive regime in Saudi Arabia now has a new weapon against women. In partnership with the government, the smartphone app Absher allows fathers and husbands to prevent their wives and daughters from leaving the country.
Every year, more than a thousand women flee Saudi Arabia in search of freedom, but many women find themselves stranded at the border because of a surveillance system put in place by the government. On their smartphone, men use the Absher app (which means "the preacher" in Arabic) for basic administrative tasks, such as paying fines or renewing a driver's license, but also to monitor women who are under their care. guardianship.
Indeed, Saudi women need the permission of a guardian (their father, husband or brother) to travel, and via Absher, men can grant or revoke their permission in a few clicks. The application immediately notifies the authorities and a woman who presents her passport at the airport will be prevented from flying if her guardian so decides. This is why many Saudi women who try to flee their families do so during holidays abroad, where local authorities do not obey the travel bans promulgated by guardians.
The app also gives men the ability to receive SMS alerts when a loved one shows their passport at the border or at an airport. The Saudi Ministry of the Interior then sends a message directly through the application. The Business Insider site obtained several screenshots of these messages, which were mandatory from 2012 to 2014. A husband whose wife travels will receive a text message like this: "Sarah, number *** 7698, left the airport King Abdul Aziz on 12-11-2012. "
In order to escape without being stalked, some women steal their guardian's phone, change passwords and give themselves permission to travel. But this is not an ideal solution because the tutor can realize it very quickly if he regularly checks the parameters of his application. Other women have already tried to change the alert phone number so that tracking SMSs are sent to them rather than to their fathers, brothers or husbands.
In many cases, families find fugitives, but in recent years, networks of mutual aid have developed, and women who have fled the country help those who also wish to resettle outside Saudi Arabia.
