Taking pictures of the bride now an offence

Jeddah: Taking photos or videos of brides during weddings or women-only parties is a violation of privacy and constitutes a crime punishable by a year in prison and SR500,000 fine, legal experts have said.

"The penalty in such criminal acts carried out intentionally or not, such as in the event one girl was photographed and other girls appeared by accident, the penalty is the same regardless of the intent," Ibrahim Zamzami, a lawyer, was quoted as saying by local media on Monday.

He stressed on the fact that the problem is aggravated when posing the photos or video on snapchat application under the icon "My Story", where other people might see the photos or watch the video and then upload it to another mobile and start blackmailing, which is another crime.

A woman recounted the story of her daughter's wedding during the last spring. "The wedding parade was published on snapchat because I could not prevent the guests from taking photos or filming. The lights were all off when the bride came in with the spotlight falling only on her. Seconds later, all I could see was cameras flashing light until my daughter reached the platform".

A number of wedding halls in Madinah ban the entry of mobile phones with cameras.

The snapchat application became problematic for people holding wedding parties because they cannot prevent the guests from filming or photographing the bride during her parade.

The supervisor of one wedding hall in Madinah said that although they ban the entry of mobile phone and cameras, some girls hide them inside the long sleeves of their dresses or inside their shoes and get them in.