“No matter how old you are, you’re always a minor. It’s almost like slavery.”

Al-Sharif was one of the first prominent Saudis to start tweeting about the electronic monitoring issue — describing the shock experienced by a couple she knew after the husband received a text message alerting him his wife had left Saudi Arabia, even though they were traveling out of the country together…

“It shows how women are still being treated as minors,” added Al-Sharif. She went on to explain how, even though a notification system has actually been in place since 2010, before last week, a male guardian would have had to specifically request the service from the country’s Interior Ministry before receiving such messages.