London's Telegraph reports that Facebook has become a refuge in Saudi Arabia for women who aren't allowed to leave home alone, as well as gays and lesbians unable to connect in public:

“Saudi preacher Ali al-Maliki has emerged as the leading critic of Facebook, claiming the network is corrupting the youth of the nation. ‘Facebook is a door to lust and young women and men are spending more on their mobile phones and the Internet than they are spending on food,' he said…Critics also allege that Facebook is an avenue for the promotion of homosexual relations in Saudi Arabia. More than 6,500 people have signed the online petition in a bid to stop the conservative Muslim kingdom following Syria in banning access to the network from local internet servers.”

Unfortunately, logging in can have deadly consequences:

“A young Saudi Arabian woman, from the country's capital, Riyadh, was beaten and then viciously murdered by her own father after being caught using the social notworking site Facebook. The woman was apparently in the midst of an online conversation with a man she had met through the site when her father walked in on her. He beat her and then shot her at point blank range, according to an al-Arabiya website report.”