Women’s rights campaigner jailed as Saudis launch new crackdown
For two years Loujain alHathloul was the public face of the fight for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia: rights that are at the forefront of the royal family’s social revolution.
Photogenic, witty and bilingual in Arabic and English from a childhood spent between Canada and Riyadh, she fought for the right for women to drive and was one of the first women to stand for elected office in 2015. The driving ban is to be lifted but Hathloul is now in prison and the subject of a campaign of vilification in the state-sanctioned media.
Her fate is believed to be the subject of exchanges between the government and western diplomats. Human rights groups say that she is proof that despite the praise heaped on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman noone is safe from his attempts to control his subjects.
‘‘They want to send a message that there is no allowance to challenge the government or talk critically,’’ a female activist said, speaking anonymously for her own protection.
Hathloul, 28, was one of 10 activists, most of them women, arrested this month. Some have been released but those still detained include Aziza al-Yousef, a wellknown academic, Eman alNafjan, a prominent blogger, and two male supporters, Mohammad al-Rabea, an activist, and Ibrahim alModaimeegh, a lawyer.
Hathloul had been arrested before – in late 2014, before the crown prince’s rise to power – for driving over the border from Abu Dhabi, where she works. She was only released after King Abdullah died and Britain’s Prince Charles, visiting to pay his condolences, raised her case with King Salman.
This case, however, is different. Photographs of some of the women were put on the front page of serious newspapers and they were called ‘‘traitors’’, with suggestions that they had been leaking secrets to ‘‘foreign entities’’. The implication that those entities might include the diplomatic staff of friendly embassies is believed to have caused consternation with ambassadors who had been keen to promote the crown prince’s reforms.
Dana Ahmed, a campaigner for Amnesty International, pointed out that many of the activists had prominent public profiles: ‘‘We have never seen this kind of smear campaign before.’’ – The Times