Dubai: Major Suzan Hajj Hobeiche, the head of the Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Bureau in Lebanon, has been removed from her powerful position after she supported a tweet accusing Saudi women of driving booby-trapped cars.
Lebanese producer Charbel Khalil posted a tweet that immediately generated controversy.
“The news women were allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia was incomplete. They were allowed to drive cars only if they were booby-trapped,” he said.
His tweet was widely condemned by Lebanese as tasteless.
Suzan reportedly liked the tweet, but quickly cancelled her ‘Like’ and later shut down her account.
However, a screenshot of her ‘Like’ was widely circulated on social media, prompting her superiors to take the decision to dismiss her.
Lebanese daily Al Nahar reported that the incident was used against her by people who did not want her to continue in the position she had been holding since 2012.
Last week, Saudi Arabia announced that the ban on women driving vehicles in the kingdom would be lifted next June.
Suzan, a mother of three, is considered the most powerful woman in the Mediterranean country.
She has a Master’s degree in Computer Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer and Communication Engineering, both from the Lebanese University.
She has served as adviser for several anti-drug and women’s rights NGOs since 2005, and has been a coordinator at the Ministry of Social Affairs since 2004.
Her areas of expertise include cybercrime, cybercrime investigation, network forensic, forensic analysis, telecommunication, programming languages, community policing and weaponry.
