Women in Hail are being urged to avoid using their personal mobile telephones to call restaurants and taxis after a surge in complaints over nuisance calls believed to be the result of their numbers being revealed to men for prices ranging between SR100 and SR500. The prices are said to rise if the restaurant or taxi firm employee also provides the willing buyer with the woman's name and address. Nawwaf Al-Jeday'i of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai'a) in Hail says his organization has responded to increasing complaints from women who have received nuisance calls after contacting restaurants or taxis. “These young men barrage the women with amorous messages, and we have made some arrests in such cases,” Al-Jeday'i said. He said that women should instead avoid making their own phone numbers known. “They should use the telephones of male relatives to protect themselves from nuisance calls, which can often lead to a sullying of their reputations and even end up in divorce,” he said. Samia Ibrahim was one such case. Contacted by a young man who she believes acquired her number from a take-away delivery man, she refused to give in to his demands. “He kept on sending me messages which enraged my husband, who ended up divorcing me over it,” Samia said. “Girls really need to be careful and only use the phones of males in the family if they want to avoid what happened to me, and they shouldn't give their numbers to non-Saudi taxi drivers who will do anything for money.” Simply changing your telephone number is not enough, as Amal Muhammad relates. “One man got hold of not just my phone number but also my name and address shortly after I'd ordered something from a restaurant by phone. Then another appeared, and before I knew it there were several unknown men calling me all the time,” Amal said. “I changed my number, but that didn't work. They started calling me on the home line as they all knew my address.” The apparent failure to find a way out has led some parents to call for authorities to intervene. “The relevant officials need to lay down serious deterrents for people who engage in these sorts of practices,” said Muhammad Al-Fahd. “The telephone companies also need to do something about it.”
