Martin Chulov: Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul released from prison // Bill Law: Can America’s Favorite Police State ever Change?

By Dilip -

NB: The fact that this activist has been forbidden to talk about her experience in jail, where she was molested and beaten shows that the Saudi Arabia is one of the most viciously misogynistic regimes in the world. We should never forget the brutal murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. DS

The prominent Saudi dissident and women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul has been released from prison after 1,001 days in custody. Following a concerted campaign by her relatives and global rights groups, Hathloul was granted probation by a judge in Riyadh and released to her family on Wednesday afternoon. Her sister Lina published a photo of a smiling Loujain on Twitter early evening Riyadh time – the first image of the most celebrated political prisoner in the Kingdom since she was detained almost three years ago. “Loujain is at home !!!!!!”, the accompanying message said.

Saudi Arabia: Can America’s Favorite Police State ever Change?

It is understood that the terms of Hathloul’s probation prevent her from discussing her ordeal in prison. She is banned from leaving Saudi Arabia, and has a suspended sentence looming if she breaks the terms of her release. “Loujain’s years-long imprisonment has ended, but she is not free,” said Adam Coogle, the deputy director for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch. “Banned from travel and coerced into silence by a suspended sentence hanging over her, Loujain’s ordeal remains a flagrant miscarriage of justice.”

Hathloul launched hunger strikes to protest against her imprisonment and joined other female activists in telling Saudi judges that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by masked men during interrogations. The women say they were caned, electrocuted and waterboarded. Some say they were forcibly groped and threatened with rape. Hathloul’s parents said they noticed bruising when they visited her in prison….

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/10/saudi-womens-rights-activist-loujain-al-hathloul-released-from-prison

'What they did to me was so horrific': Brutal silencing of a Saudi feminist

Walid al-Hathloul: My sister is in a Saudi jail. Her crime? Campaigning for women’s rights

Marieme Helie Lucas: Stand and Be Counted

No spring for Arab women - Interview with Marieme Helie Lucas

Manifesto for a Secular Middle East and North Africa

On 'terrorism' & the recent killings in the UK - by Margaret Kimberley + comment by Marieme Helie Lucas

Karima Bennoune - Charlie Hebdo: "There is no way they will make us put down our pens."

Warwick Student's Union apologises, Maryam Namazie to speak on campus

Charlie Hebdo - Letter to the Left Leaning

Interview with Karima Bennoune, author of 'Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here'

Woman filmmaker in Iran sentenced to 18 months in prison 

Ruqia Hassan, murdered by ISIS

The Daoud Affair By Paul Berman and Michael Walzer

Saoussen Ben Cheikh: Middle East Governments are using Covid-19 as a Pretext to Crush Human Rights // Palestinians to be “subjects,” not Citizens in Israeli Annexation

Leading Saudi activist dies in detention, say campaigners

Bethan McKernan - Ayasofya: the mosque-turned-museum at the heart of an ideological battle

Michael Walzer: Islamism and the Left - including a reply & debate with Andrew March

The religious persecution of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1945-2010)/ Interview: My life fighting intolerance/ Mahmoud Mohammed Taha & the Second Message of Islam

The religious persecution of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

God resigns over situation in Middle East (from Karl reMarks) // Saudi Arabia Announces Historic Decision to Ban Everything

APPRAISAL Of British Officers / extracts from ACRs

Charlie Hebdo - Letter to the Left Leaning

Arshia Malik-The Nation

Arshia Malik-Times of India

Alberuni's Tarikh Al-Hind

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha (Author of Second Message of Islam); also known as Ustaz Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, was a Sudanese religious thinker, leader, and trained engineer. He was executed for apostasy at the age of 76 by the regime of Gaafar Nimeiry. (See his Court statement)

THE MODERATE MARTYR - A radically peaceful vision of Islam

The St. Petersburg Declaration (2007)

Khaled Ahmed - Rollback nations (NEWSWEEK PAKISTAN)

David Bergman - As Bangladesh court reaffirms Islam as state religion, secularism hangs on to a contradiction

Defend this reporter! Case over Paris cartoon forces Mumbai editor to go behind a veil

Aarefa Johari - Six months since she published Charlie Hebdo cover, Urdu editor struggles for work and money

Sandip Roy: Harassment of Urdu editor proves our own hypocrisy

Mohd Asim - Congratulations. We've Forced an Editor Into a Burqa

Shirin Dalvi case: The tyranny of hurt sentiment

The hounding of Shirin Dalvi: 'These people are doing all this to damage my career'

People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism: Statement on the harrassment of Shirin Dalvi

PRESS CLUB CONDEMNS WITCH-HUNT OF URDU DAILY EDITOR // Statement on arrest of Shirin Dalvi, Editor, Awadhnama

Peter Dale Scott - Islam, a Forgotten Holocaust, and American Historical Amnesia - Indonesia's massacre of communists in 1965

Sharia law in operation: Indonesian couple flogged in public // Kate Lamb: Indonesia still fighting ghosts of communism

MAX REGUS - The state of silence: Indonesia’s religious discrimination


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