A village in Bihar, India has banned cell phone usage by girls.

A village in Bihar, Northern India has recently banned women from using mobile phones.

If women are caught using the devices, they will have to pay hefty fines. Village residents, many of them elderly citizens were mostly in favor of the ban. A local official states “Mobile phone is the cause of all evils in our society including increasing love affairs and the incidents of elopement. "It is intolerable and eroding the moral fabric in our society.”

The law seems to be aimed at unmarried females, as married women are permitted to use a cell phone, but only inside of a residence with a relative in ear shot. Officials from the All India Democratic Women’s Association have publicly denounced the ban.

Earlier this year, another controversy involved IKEA catalogues. Approximately 200 million copies of IKEA's catalogue were scheduled to be circulated in 38 countries. However, the Swedish furniture company reportedly removed or 'erased' women out of the catalogue set to be distributed in Saudi Arabia. The decision to remove photos of females seemed to reflect the country's cultural beliefs.