Absher: Help or Hindrance?
Hello Delegates!
Hope you've been having a great week and we are super excited to meet you all very soon. As you know from reading the topic synopsis, the first issue that we are going to discuss is on the Empowerment of Muslim Women. Therefore, this week I've decided to discuss a pressing issue within the Arab community and the Western World regarding an app called 'Absher'.
Absher is a mobile application that was launched in Saudi Arabia by the Interior Ministry in 2015 with the goal of creating an online government platform for its citizens to free people from bureaucratic inefficiency for day-to-day services. The app allows citizens to make appointments, renew IDs (drivers licenses, car registration and other services), check visa validity and make appointments at hospitals etc.
What seems like an app that can only bring ease towards its citizens has in fact stirred response from the international community. This is due to the fact that one of the features on this application deals with travel permits and allows men to receive texts and alerts if their wives are leaving the country. With a few easy steps, men have the ability to trace, and restrict the amount of days their spouses/daughters can travel for and also revoke travel permits if need be. The power that men have with this app stems from the fundamental understanding that within Saudi Arabia, male guardianship is a must, and women are treated as minors and require permission for simple acts.
Upon hearing the capabilities this application has, Apple and Google have dealt with backlash within Western communities for allowing this application to be available for download. They have been criticized for condemning a "wife-tracker" application that has had over 11 million users. On the other side of this spectrum, citizens of Saudi Arabia have stated this application has in fact helped with the progression of the rights women hold in the country. Mona Eltahawy, a prominent Egyptian American feminist, tweeted a message from a Saudi woman explaining that "while Absher is awful, having it removed will further restrict women. Before it came along, she said, granting travel restrictions was burdensome so guardians would use that as excuse to keep women at home". Others claim that the Western media is mistaken in portraying an app as a tool of repression when it has in fact allowed several women to travel across borders.
You can read more about the this application and the arguments women across the world are making here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-app-women.html http://www.arabnews.com/node/1453341/saudi-arabia
Some questions to consider are:
Do you think this application is progression or a step back for women in Saudi Arabia?
Will deleting the application cause more backlash within the community?
Do you think the involvement of Western countries is justified?
Hope you've been having a great week and we are super excited to meet you all very soon. As you know from reading the topic synopsis, the first issue that we are going to discuss is on the Empowerment of Muslim Women. Therefore, this week I've decided to discuss a pressing issue within the Arab community and the Western World regarding an app called 'Absher'.Absher is a mobile application that was launched in Saudi Arabia by the Interior Ministry in 2015 with the goal of creating an online government platform for its citizens to free people from bureaucratic inefficiency for day-to-day services. The app allows citizens to make appointments, renew IDs (drivers licenses, car registration and other services), check visa validity and make appointments at hospitals etc.
What seems like an app that can only bring ease towards its citizens has in fact stirred response from the international community. This is due to the fact that one of the features on this application deals with travel permits and allows men to receive texts and alerts if their wives are leaving the country. With a few easy steps, men have the ability to trace, and restrict the amount of days their spouses/daughters can travel for and also revoke travel permits if need be. The power that men have with this app stems from the fundamental understanding that within Saudi Arabia, male guardianship is a must, and women are treated as minors and require permission for simple acts.
Upon hearing the capabilities this application has, Apple and Google have dealt with backlash within Western communities for allowing this application to be available for download. They have been criticized for condemning a "wife-tracker" application that has had over 11 million users. On the other side of this spectrum, citizens of Saudi Arabia have stated this application has in fact helped with the progression of the rights women hold in the country. Mona Eltahawy, a prominent Egyptian American feminist, tweeted a message from a Saudi woman explaining that "while Absher is awful, having it removed will further restrict women. Before it came along, she said, granting travel restrictions was burdensome so guardians would use that as excuse to keep women at home". Others claim that the Western media is mistaken in portraying an app as a tool of repression when it has in fact allowed several women to travel across borders.
You can read more about the this application and the arguments women across the world are making here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-app-women.html http://www.arabnews.com/node/1453341/saudi-arabia
Some questions to consider are:
Do you think this application is progression or a step back for women in Saudi Arabia?
Will deleting the application cause more backlash within the community?
Do you think the involvement of Western countries is justified?
I think that Absher has two aspects. While it does allow women more freedom, the nature of the app limits their freedom. Absher is a temporary step forward if it allows women more freedom, but it still restricts them. It could be especially harmful to those who are trying to escape a dangerous situation. Absher at its core, is inherently harmful to the women who use it, because it gives their guardians power over whoever uses it. The power gained by the women who use it is not as much as the power their guardians have over them. I think that Western countries are justified in having an opinion regarding the app, but unless someone is harmed because of the app, they are not justified in intervening. That being said, this app should not have the potential to cause people harm; especially people who are trying to escape dangerous situations.
ReplyDelete-Senegal
I believe that this app is largely beneficial not only for the Arab community but for the wen residing within it. It allows for ease of travel which is something that the Muslim people are largely in need of which can be seen in many problematic situations whether it be border crossing in Israel Palestine or the Muslim Travel Ban in the US. The app is technological advancement that leads to an ease of travel and the facilitation of further freedoms. Additionally, it’s good for men to know where their wives are. It would be a different scenario if there was a divorce, but family needs to function as a unit. It doesn’t mean that women are being controlled especially since it allows women to have more freedoms to leave the country. It’s improved freedom for all.
ReplyDelete-Mali
The nation of Turkey sees Absher as a beneficial technological force. Despite its shortcomings, the app provides women with more resources to ultimately gain more independence. Turkey encourages that nations focus on developing technologies to improve nations' services to their citizens. Turkey does acknowledge the negative aspects of this app; however, the interference of Western nations or the forced deletion of the app may lead to more controversy than necessary, reflecting negatively on the entire Islamic world as a whole. Given Saudi Arabia's shaky track record in terms of women's rights however, Turkey urges that some sort of regulation be implemented to insure that the services of the app are not abused to the detriment of women.
ReplyDelete-Turkey
The country of Syrian Arab Republic does believe that this app is a progression for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. Although it is a valid point that this does give the male population more available access to tracking and controlling their female counterparts, this app also has made it easier and more likely for women to engage in actions such as leaving the country. Regardless of this app, women in Saudi Arabia have always been treated like minors and need their male guardian’s approval in order to do many life tasks such as get married, leave the country and apply for a license. Prior to the creation of this app, these women were forced to go to government offices that were often very inefficient and would require much work from both the woman and her guardian in order to complete these simple tasks. Rather, this app allows for the woman and her guardian to make their own decision in regards to how much control the guardian has. A real life example of this can be seen when “Men[in Saudi Arabia] who don’t believe in controlling women gave them access to their Absher and that shows an increase in the participation of women in their own decision-making” (Radwan). Thus, deleting this app right now would not only cause backlash within the Arabic community but would take away these budding rights from these women. The justifiability of the Western countries involvement is not very straightforward in this situation due to Apple and Google being American companies.
ReplyDeleteSyrian Arab Republic