University student Nashwa Abdu Al-Qoosi, 23, said that mobile phones have caused her much harassment and embarrassing situations. “I have been surprised sometimes that people call me randomly, and when they hear a response from a girl, they rush to talking about the love, and expressing their fake emotions, which leads me to turn off the telephone, but then they resort to sending me dirty messages,” she said. He mentions that even when studying in the university hall, she would receive a couple of Bluetooth messages every hour, disrupting her educational training gat the university. “I replaced my mobile with another that does not have Bluetooth technology, because I received many pornographic pictures,” she adds. “I consider this behavior to be foul and subversive.” 

Sociology professors Abdul-Gabar Radman and Fatin Abdu of Sana’a University see this phenomenon of Bluetooth as a cancer plaguing the Muslim culture. They see it as linked to a hostile Western conspiracy to promote subversive ideas in developing societies. Bluetooth is a feature built into some mobile phones which enables the user to transfer data to another wireless device nearby. But crucially, it also enables one person to contact another within a 10 meter radius without knowing their phone number.

Fuad Mansoor complains that in the first weeks after he got married he used to eat out on a daily basis. However, he realized that his wife used to receive Bluetooth messages while they enjoy their meal. His wife was forced to change her Bluetooth name into a male name in order not be bothered by other men at the restaurant. "things have changed very much, even if you do not want to go the wrong path, people will try to influence you even by using the smallest of tool," said Mansoor, who in the end decided to continue going to restaurants but while he and his wife's Bluetooth device closed at least for the mean time.

Foreign tourists had a different perspective when asked of their opinion on the problems that are seen caused to young ones or women using the Bluetooth device, and their answers came surprising. Victor, a Romanian tourist who was roaming Tahreer square of the capital, thought that the device was not a big matter, and they would never consider it a social problem back home. "In Romania, we have bigger things to worry about like stopping our children from using drugs, drinking alcohol, and even sex before the age of 13, he said".

"Yemen is very conservative, and it is good in some ways in keeping people culturally attached."

From another angle, parents have started to show their concerns as more than just pictures could be transferred through the Bluetooth device. Video clips, some which show for over ten minutes could be sent by Bluetooth if enough memory is available. This has cause parents to be curious for what might be inside their children's telephone.

Mobile phones store owners like Salman Ali Al-Salahi who runs a phone store in the capital, says that most of his customers that buy phones that have Bluetooth devices are under the age of 21. According to Al-Salahi, some even talk about how they would negatively use the device in public and while buying the phone. When buying a Bluetooth device phone, some would consider greatly a phone with large memory space and would pay extra if it is not available. "They buy the phone and they know exactly what they want to do with it and how to use it. There is almost no way their families can know what sort of problems their children are heading themselves into. Al-Salahi mentions that never did a parent come to his shop or even ask if they have seen their kid, or show the shop owner a picture. He believes that kids strongly feel that no one will watch them or care for what they do.

For those who can't afford the phones that have the Bluetooth device, they are able to buy the chip and put in directly in their phones. The usage of it is not as great as the others, but it is better than nothing for those who can't afford expensive phones.

For married couples like Sameer Hashim Saeed of Ibb and his wife, they would prefer to close the Bluetooth device and enjoy their time out alone together, avoiding disruption from others. "Whether we go to a restaurant for dinner or to the park for a walk eventually females would always get 5-10 Bluetooth messages every hour," said Maryam Al-Humaikani, Sameer's wife. "It seems that wherever you go you would receive them, for this we prefer to close the device and not be bothered by others."

From a religious point of view, Sheikh Mohammed Ismael Al-Amrani was surprised to know to what extent people have been able to use the Bluetooth device negatively, and calls its a shame for people to take from technology only the bad that it has to offer. He stressed that people should be well aware that they are being used as a tool by others to spread negative behavior into our society and destroy the remaining of what is left in Yemen's conservative society. "Everyday you hear of newer techniques that are being used by people. The problem is that the most of the techniques that we hear of their usage are negative. Modernization and the west have better thing to offer