Camera phones banned in schools

Doha: The Ministry of Education has banned the use of mobile phones with camera at all private and public schools, local dailies said on Tuesday.

"The Minister of Education Shaikha Ahmad Al Mahmoud yesterday issued a decision banning the use of mobile phones with cameras by students of all schools in Qatar," said the brief ministry statement published in Qatari dailies.

It added that the decision also bans use of any mobile phone during the lessons and examinations.

Officials at the ministry of education were not immediately available to comment on the issue.

The measure is a recent one in a series of initiatives aimed at curbing the practice of mobile users taking pictures of unaware 'victims' to show or exchange these.

The trend among students and teenagers of taking pictures of unaware women and distributing them has caused alarm in the community, the paper said.

Qatar's conservative society does not accept women being filmed or photographed without their consent and violators can face severe punishment.

The ban is already in place in some beauty salons and clubs, and often phones with built-in cameras are banned from private parties and weddings, where they get regularly confiscated.

In some public places, though camera phones are not officially banned, mobile users photographing women could run the risk of getting a fine or having their phones confiscated.

Qatar's daily Peninsula recently reported that the fear of camera mobile phones is keeping a number of Qatari ladies away from beauty salons. In these cases the violators are other women.

"Sometimes matchmakers take pictures to show to the males of their families or others. Sometimes it could be just for envy. Once a lady who is usually wearing the veil is portrayed without it and her picture is shown around, her reputation could be ruined forever," a Qatari lady told Gulf News.

Qatar-based lawyer Mohammad Al Fadalla warned that mobile phone users distributing pictures and videos taken on the sly, could face jail term and cash fines.

He said Article 292 of the Penal Code states that those found guilty of taking pictures on the sly, especially indecent or vulgar ones, whatever their use, is punishable with prison terms up to one year and fines of 5,000 riyals (about Dh5,049).