Defying Islamist Control : Saudi Women Activists

"She wanted to go back and kind of pay back to the women in Saudi Arabia because she had been able to come to Canada, travel, live abroad, gain a new understanding of the world."
"I've kind of been ... in awe."
"She's been charged on a bunch of, in our opinion, bogus charges. And we're obviously getting more and more worried."
Urooba Jamal, freelance journalist, British Columbia

Vancouver-based friends of UBC graduate Loujain al-Hathloul held a photo shoot last fall to show their support for her and other detained women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia. Pictured in the foreground from left to right are Ayendri Ishani Riddell, Narissa Diwan and Rauza Khan. In the back are Urooba Jamal and Atiya Jaffar. Doaa Jamal

"We know that some of the women [activists] were charged with promoting women's rights and calling for the end of the male guardianship system."
"The women were also charged with contacting international organizations, foreign media and other activists, including their contact with Amnesty International."
Jacqueline Hansen, spokeswoman, Amnesty International Canada

"Loujain told us she has been beaten, electrocuted and sexually harassed."
"During a recent visit, we learned from Loujain that her captors had taken her to a psychologist to help her recover from torture she had endured. But she fainted from the trauma of reliving her experiences."
"On her second visit to the psychologist she says she was blindfolded and duct taped to a wheelchair."
Walid al-Hathloul, Toronto, brother 

"Even today, I am torn about writing about Loujain, scared that speaking about her ordeal might harm her."
"But these long months and absence of hope have only increased my desperation to see the travel bans on my parents, who are in Saudi Arabia, revoked and to see my brave sister freed."
Alia al-Hathloul, sister

"We are concerned by the detention of women rights activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul."
"Canada remains committed to advocating for the detained activists in their struggle for gender equality and human rights. We have raised this situation with Saudi officials and will continue to do so, alongside our international partners."
"Canada will never hesitate to defend human rights and we believe that this dialogue is critical to international diplomacy."
Global Affairs Canada

Rights campaigner Loujain al-Hathloul is on trial for unspecified charges in Riyadh. Photograph: Reuters

Saudi national Loujain al-Hathloul was permitted to leave Saudi Arabia to attend university in Canada, at the University of British Columbia, where she studied several years ago and made fast friends with other foreign students. Urooba Jamal, who became her friend, was an executive of the Pakistani Students' Association at the university and Loujain al-Hathloul had become active in the group, one year helping to organize relief efforts when Pakistan was struggling with dreadful flooding conditions.

Loujain al-Hathloul (centre, next to the woman in the pink hijab) is pictured with other members of the UBC Pakistani Students’ Association in 2012. She graduated from UBC in 2014. Hiba Rajpar

After graduating in 2014, al-Hathloul returned to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and quickly made headlines after she videotaped herself defying the country's ban on women drivers, which resulted in imprisonment for 70 days. A year later, she was among the first women in Saudi Arabia to run for elected office in municipal elections, the only level of government newly-open to women to compete in.

Screen capture from a Nov. 30 2014 video made by Loujain al-Hathloul as she drove towards the Saudi border from the United Arab Emirates. AP Photo/Loujain al-Hathloul, File

However, things have not gone well for al-Hathloul, 28. Since early 2018 she has been in detention together with a number of other Saudi women's rights activists cast as "traitors" in Saudi media. Friends, family and human rights groups are demanding that Western nations make more of an effort to persuade Saudi authorities to release the women as they prepare for a hearing in criminal court today. On March 13 al-Hathloul and another ten women appeared for their first court hearing in Riyadh.

Demonstrators from Amnesty protest outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Paris to release the jailed female activists. Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters

None of the women were given access to legal representation, leading human rights groups to call for international monitors to enter the country in the wake of accusations that Saudi interrogators have tortured some of the women, denied by Saudi officials. Held incommunicado, al-Hathloul was finally permitted a visit from her family. Al-Hathloul was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by foreign affairs critic Helene Laverdiere, Member of Parliament, quoted as saying: The Trudeau government needs to "walk the talk"; to halt a $15-billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

On a previous occasion, Saudi Arabia reacted in an unexpectedly ferociously-explosive manner to posts by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland calling for Saudi Arabia to release Samar Badawi, activist sister of imprisoned and flogged Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, along with other women activists, from prison leading the Kingdom to expel Canada's ambassador, suspend trade and investments, and call home thousands of Saudi students studying at Canadian universities.

According to Rex Brynen, professor of political science at McGill University: "There's always the risk that it [public condemnation of Saudi Arabia] has the opposite effect [of that intended]; that is, that Riyadh doubles down on repression to prove it can't and won't be pressured. On the one hand, it might make Global Affairs Canada more cautious. On the other hand, given that Saudi Arabia has already retaliated for past criticism of their human rights record, maybe there isn’t all that much more they can do to us."

International rights groups and governments have called for the activists to be released [File: Benoit Tessier/Reuters]