Family: Jailed Saudi woman activist in new hunger strike

RIYADH: Jailed Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain alHathloul has begun a new hunger strike in prison to demand regular contact with her family, her siblings said on Tuesday.

Hathloul, whose detention since 2018 has made her emblematic of the fight for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, began refusing food on Monday evening, her sister Lina alHathloul said.

“Loujain told (our parents) she is exhausted of being mistreated and deprived from hearing her family’s voices,” Lina wrote on Twi er.

“She told them she will start a hunger strike starting yesterday evening until they allow her regular calls again.”

There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities.

Hathloul’s parents were allowed to see her on Monday, her siblings said, but for months the activist has been permi ed only limited contact with her family.

In August, Hathloul went on a hunger strike for nearly a week a er she was denied the right to call or meet her family for several months, her siblings said.

She ended that strike a er her parents were eventually allowed to visit her in prison, they added.

Hathloul, 31, was arrested along with around a dozen women activists in May 2018, just weeks before Saudi Arabia li ed a decades-old ban on female drivers.

Some of them have been provisionally released, while others including Hathloul remain in detention amid what campaigners call opaque court trials over charges that include contact with foreign media, diplomats and human rights groups.

The pro-government media branded Hathloul and other jailed activists as “traitors” and her family alleges she faced sexual harassment and torture, including electric shocks and water boarding, in detention.

Hathloul also accused former royal court media adviser Saud al-Qahtani of threatening to rape and kill her, according to her family. — AFP