Human Rights Watch has reported:
Saudi Arabia has arrested two more women’s rights activists, the latest to be swept up in a government crackdown on activists, clerics and journalists…More than a dozen women’s rights activists have been targeted since May. Most campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system
Well-known activists Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sada were among those arrested. Samar is the sister of Raif Badawi, a humanitarian writer and dissident who was “flogged in public 50 times in January. He has 950 lashes and nearly a decade in prison left to serve – simply for blogging about free speech.”
Saudi Arabia recently bought former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair for $12,000,000 to promote to the world the claim that it is modernizing.
“Saudi Arabia arrests two more women’s rights activists: rights group,” Reuters, August 1, 2018:
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has arrested two more women’s rights activists, the latest to be swept up in a government crackdown on activists, clerics and journalists, an international rights group said on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said authorities arrested Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah in the past two days.
More than a dozen women’s rights activists have been targeted since May. Most campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system, which requires women to obtain the consent of a male relative for major decisions.
The arrests are at odds with the progressive image the government has projected this year under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Government spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest reports.
Badawi has received the United States’ International Women of Courage Award in 2012 for challenging the guardianship system, and was among the first women who signed a petition calling on the government to allow women to drive, vote and run in local elections.
Sadah, from the restive Shi’ite-majority Qatif province, has also campaigned to abolish the guardianship system and the right to drive.
“The arrests of Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah signal that the Saudi authorities see any peaceful dissent, whether past or present, as a threat to their autocratic rule,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement.
“Saudi authorities have targeted and harassed Badawi for years. In addition to her advocacy for women’s equality, she has campaigned energetically for both her former husband and her brother to be released from prison,” the statement added….