Saudi Arabia authorities temporarily suspend text-message tracking for women

Saudi Arabia authorities have reportedly suspended a monitoring system that text alerts Saudi women's male 'guardians', every time they cross the border.

According to Lt. Col. Ahmad Al-Laheedan, spokesperson of the Passports Department, the suspension has been announced to make amendments to the system and following review by officials, the new improved service will be optional.

The system requires women and children in Saudi Arabia to seek signed permission from male guardians in order to travel to other countries, Independent reported.

Since November 2012, male members were being sent notifications on their phones informing them of their women's cross-border movements.

Sabria S. Jawhar, a Saudi columnist and assistant professor of applied linguistics at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences expressed her appreciation on the temporary hold-up, saying that she hopes for this to be a step toward canceling the whole system.

While some are in favour of cancellation of the text message tracker, a few people feel that the system is necessary to keep a check on women and their movements.