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Blackmail against women on the rise in Saudi
Blackmail against women is on the rise in Saudi Arabia with more complaints to the religious police, according to press reports, prompting some women to take matters into their own hands. Electronic blackmail, using pictures of women stored on their computer, the internet or mobile phones, has become an increasingly common form of blackmail used to extort money from the victim or force her into prostitution. Last year 65 women and girls filed cases in Mecca alone, though many never make a formal report, Ahmed Qassem al-Ghamdi, head of the Mecca branch of the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat Saturday. A study by the commission last year found that blackmail often involves threatening to harm a woman's reputation by telling or showing her family scandalous information, and that victims typically range in age between 16 and 39. Blackmail cases often result from an illicit relationship between the offender and the victim, said Ghamdi, though he noted the prevalence of cases in which pictures were taken from or put on a woman's computer or cell phone after being left at repair shops. Posted by: Fred 2009-02-09 |
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