'What they did to me was so horrific': Brutal silencing of a Saudi feminist
Loujain al-Hathloul
always likes to ask questions, her brother Walid says. “Growing up, she always
pointed out the hypocrisy around driving in Saudi Arabia, trying
to understand why women were banned from driving. She kept questioning.” But when Hathloul, now
29, was pulled over while driving in neighbouring United Arab Emirates last
April before being deported back to Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s rulers began
the latest in a series of increasingly brutal efforts to silence her.
Hathloul says she was
detained for three days, freed and then seized again from her family home in
Riyadh. She says she was blindfolded, thrown into the boot of a car and taken
to a detention centre she has called a “palace of terror” and has been tortured,
and threatened with rape and death. Hathloul has now been held for
more than a year. Hathloul was arrested
with 10 other women in a sweep targeting outspoken women who had campaigned for
the right to drive. The arrests included veteran campaigners like Aziza
al-Yousef and blogger Eman al-Nafjan.
It marked a crescendo in what human rights groups have branded Saudi’s
“year of shame”. Clerics, activists, journalists and writers have been
targeted.
Eleven women
were put
on trial for “coordinated activity to undermine the security,
stability and social peace of the kingdom” amid accusations of contact with
foreign diplomats and journalists. Seven were bailed earlier this year, but
Hathloul’s brother says the family do not expect the same for her. Observers
say Hathloul has received particularly poor treatment in prison because of her
role as a leading feminist campaigner, her activism seen as a slap in the face
to the kingdom’s narrative that change for women should come from the top. As
the trial drags on, no one is clear just how long her imprisonment could be.
Dr Hala al-Dosari, a
prominent Saudi human rights activist and scholar at the Centre for Human
Rights and Global Justice at New York University, said the women are on trial
“as a deterrent. They’re being treated as an example for other women who might
think of doing the same thing.”
According to
Amnesty International, the women were held incommunicado for a month and
subjected to electric shocks, as well as psychological and physical torture... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/may/24/what-they-did-to-me-was-so-horrific-brutal-silencing-of-a-saudi-feminist-loujain-al-hathloulsee also
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