Opinion | Aljazeera : What it means to be a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia

Eman Alnafjan with her child.. months before her arrest

Read My first Oped on Aljazeera,

” The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in early October was meant to send a chilling message to all Saudi activists, who had managed to flee abroad. Fear has struck our community but many of us decided to remain vocal and continue campaigning against the barbaric practices of the Saudi government.

We will continue campaigning for the release of Eman despite US President Donald Trump clearly giving Saudi Arabia a pass on human rights violations. The international community must not do the same; it should take urgent action and form an independent committee under the umbrella of the United Nations that is allowed to visit political prisoners and ensure they are not mistreated. The Saudi authorities cannot be trusted with giving political prisoners a fair trial or respecting the rights of detainees.”

Here is why Saudi Arabia is arresting women’s rights activists.. updated list 7-8-2018

The headline ‘’ Women in Saudi now can drive ‘’ was all over the newspapers worldwide few months ago. It was a big news here in Italy, where I currently live as a refugee. I remember that morning very well, I was on my way to work when I met a woman who used to work for the refugee center and said ‘’ Did you read the news? Women can drive in Saudi now? Are you going back to Saudi Arabia?? ‘’. Unfortunately, the majority of people abroad are not aware of the depth of the problems Saudi women face and how shallow this ‘’ Royal decree’’ / decision to left the driving ban.

Women in Saudi not only can not drive, but they can not travel, marry or divorce, pursue education, work or get surgery done in a hospital without a consent of a male guardian. This male guardian law is more of an ownership/slavery system that gives men full power over women. Sadly, this also permits violence against women. Violence against women and girls is a major issue in Saudi Arabia. It is so common that its becoming more of a ‘’ cultural thing’’.

The ‘’ institutional discrimination ‘’against women also bans women from the right to have a safe-house or protection when escaping violence. Instead, a woman is jailed in a center until the male guardian whom also ‘’ the abuser’’ comes and pick her up. If a woman refuses to leave with him, she is to be jailed for life.   Hence, women’s right activists in Saudi Arabia  never stopped campaigning and demanding for more rights  like the right to be fully free first-class citizen like their male counterparts and for the male guardianship to be abolished.

For Saudi women the Royal decree was not enough. Women’s rights activists wanted full reforms that will grant women their full rights. Some of the activists continued to blog, others continued campaigning on social media like twitter and some created anti violence center for women escaping violence. Unfortunately, creating civil institutions to protect women escaping violence and campaigning against male guardianship laws are considered punishable crimes in Saudi Arabia.

Those women who were arrested are being accused of serious crimes such as ‘’ contact with foreign units with the purpose of undermining the country’s stability and social fabric’’ They are also being called agents and traitors to the country. In other words, spies.  Their pictures were posted on the first page of many local new sites with a big word of traitor written with red color on top.  This was done to send a message to other women’s rights activists who are part of the network.  The arrests are still ongoing. I personally have a short list of some of the women who were arrested but I am afraid the list is a lot longer.

This series of arrests targeting activists is not new in Saudi Arabia.  In 2011 many human rights activists were jailed and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences and were charged with crimes  like terrorism and apostasy. Some even received a death sentence  and executed  in a mass execution in 2016 

This regrouping and campaigning continuously to demand for women’s rights have frightened the new young Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. He is well-known for his zero tolerance toward opposition movements and social activism. Just not long ago he fearlessly arrested 500 members of the Saudi royal family including Waleed bin Talal and Mutaib bin Abdullah, the son of the late king of Saudi Arabia. For this reason, arresting women’s right activists who were bringing international attention to Saudi Arabia’s  violation of human rights against women was not that difficult for the new crown prince.

At last, I hope that Saudi women those who are still in Saudi Arabia  and those who escaped and became refugees like myself to continue blogging spreading the word until those women are released from prison.

Share this post and pass it over  so those women will not be forgotten behind bars..

 

Here is the list of Saudi  Women who were jailed

• Dr.Eman Fahad Al Nafjan 
• Loujain Fahad Al Hathloul
• Dr. Aisha Almana    ( UPDATE ) released on the 23rd of May 2018) 
• 
• Wala Alshubbar  ( UPDATE – RELEASED ON THE 27TH OF MAY 2018)
• 
• Aziza Al yousef
• 
• Dr. Hessa Al shaikh ( UPDATE RELEASED) 24th of May 2018
• Madeha Al-Ajroush ( Update released)  24th of May 2018
• 
• Hatoon Al Fasi 
• 
• Naseema Al Sada – on the left ( arrested in August 2018)
• 

Some Saudi activists whom also supporters of women rights were arrested

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Modaimeegh

Abdulaziz Al-Mesha’al

Mohammad Al-Rabea

Ibrahim Fahad Al-Nafjan

 

Unnamed man that the state refused to release his name to the press.

 

It is Official! I am Now a Political Refugee In Italy

It was back in 2013 when I decided to seek asylum in Mainland China. Yes, I know mainland China is not exactly a ” pro human rights ” country but I had no other choice. I was studying and living in China at that time. I heard the news by friends who are still in Saudi that the Saudi Arabian intelligence police are starting a campaign against activists and bloggers accusing them of apostasy and terrorism to justify long prison or death sentences .  Many have been arrested with no charges or trials too! some were banned from traveling outside Saudi Arabia.. and some tried to escape and failed like Hamaza Khasghari and some made it and escaped just like me!

This Anti-activists campaign  comes as no surprise to everyone after the Arab spring, As  Saudi Arabia knew that this political chaos is sooner or later going to hit Saudi. At first, it started with high profile activists like Raif Badawi and Waleed Abukhair and Shia rebels who were protesting  in Eastern province where majority of Shiite minority lives. Then this campaign extended further more to include some other activists and  Sunni religious figures who are anti Al Saud regime.

It is difficult to tell how many have been arrested or killed since this campaign started!  many who were imprisoned did not want to make their arrest go public, as they fear that publicity will negatively affect their trial like it did with other activists before them.

One of them is a friend of mine, A.H.S whom I asked him to join me in China before its too late. Unfortunately, it was too late for him.  He was arrested and charged with apostasy. He was released not so long ago after he appealed but he is still banned from traveling out of Saudi Arabia.

Seeing the news of continuous arbitrary detention of  Saudi activists was upsetting, but what is even more upsetting was this international ” silence” that is bought by the  Saudi black gold.

All this made me reckon that staying in Saudi as an activist wouldn’t be a good idea. Thats when I decided seek asylum in China.

Not knowing how things work, I first went to the Norwegian embassy which advised me to go to UNHCR– Beijing.   I was given an appointment in 2014.  Then it took another year of intensive investigation  and extremely long very tiring and emotional interviews   before the committee of UNHCR come to their final decision which was in May 2015.

I will never forget the phone call when the a member of the UNHCR told me that my request of international protection has been approved by the committee. I was in shock, I remember I  cried and smiled at the same time upon receiving the news through the phone.

Maybe it was a combination of sadness and happiness.. knowing that this is it, a one way ticket to freedom and the no return point. I will be gaining freedom but losing family, friends and a lot more.  I must admit,  It is a very difficult compromise . I still recall Manal Al Sharif warning me saying ”Omaima, don’t burn the bridges behind you, you might want to go back”.

There were difficult times in which I had feelings of regret, self-pity and nostalgia.  For instance, the time I had a car accident in China in  April 2016 and I was  alone with an injured spinal cord. Another time when I had legal issues in Norway when I was trying to transfer my UNHCR refugee status to Norway and it didn’t work. Then when I was brought by police force to Italy and sent to a former prison that was transformed into a illegal refugee reception center! yes, Ironically My UNHCR refugee status was meaningless and useless that is  what I found out later.  Maybe I will write about those horrible experiences that I had to go through in another post.

I had to  go through the suffering again  and repeat the process in Italy, I had to go through everything from zero as if I have not done it before.  I came to Italy in the summer of 2016. and  received the news on the 10th of Nov 2017. It  took  about 15 very  long months.

As you might all know, Europe is going through refugee crisis. However, Italy along with Greece deal with the crisis the most because of the high influx of migrants coming by the sea from the Libyan shores. Italy is one of the worst countries to be refugee in. I must say being a refugee here is not a walk in the park. It takes a high threshold of patience to be able to endure all this suffering I have been through.  So Saudi activists out there be warned, the price of freedom is high. Sadly, pain, loneliness and hardship is part of it. I will be writing a post about My journey  as asylum seeker sometime in the future.

I writing this post to just happily announce that finally this very long and bitter struggle is over and My journey  has came to an end. Now with this political refugee status I can obtain a refugee travel document and legal papers that allow me to stay in Italy, travel abroad and have a normal life.

 

The Long Journey to Freedom

Dear Readers,

I know I have not been blogging for a while now, that is because I have been on the road looking for a country to settle in.

I obtained a refugee status (international protection) from The United Nation Office in China and went to Norway. Unfortunately and I must say unexpectedly, Norway has rejected to take my case and deported me out!

Yes, shocking isn’t?

 Hence, I am now on the road again looking for place to settle.

I am hoping that soon I will be blogging again to write about my never ending journey to freedom.

 

Love!

Omaima

Free Loujain and Maysaa

It has been 2 weeks since the arrest of the Saudi activists Lojain Al Hathloul and Maysaa Al Amoudi.
Loujain was crossing the boarders of UAE/Saudi Arabia driving her own car attempting to break the driving ban in Saudi Arabia when she was arrested earlier this month.
Loujain was stopped on the boarders for over 24 hours, While Saudi Arabian officers at the boarders making phone calls trying to reach the ministry of interior affairs to report Loujain Al Hathloul.
Saudi Officers refused to let Loujain enter the country because she was driving her car. Even though, Loujain holds a valid driving license.
A Saudi officer suggested to Loujain to either go to Saudi Arabia by bus or by plane as she is not allowed to drive a car in Saudi Arabia since she is a ”woman”. Loujain who is holding a valid GCC driving license argued ” I am a Saudi citizen with a Saudi passport, and as per the law a holder of GCC driving license can drive anywhere within gulf countries ” including Saudi Arabia” as there is no exception in the law against Saudi women.
Yet, she was kept in custody in the boarders for over 24 hours and when Maysaa Al Amoudi, another Saudi activists resides in UAE came to help loujain, the police arrested her as well. Maysaa’s sister Wafa Al Amoudi posted a video asking the Saudi autorities to release both her sister and Loujain Al hathlol saying that her sister had no intention to cross the baorders, she was only bringing something to loujain when she was arrested.
The two Saudi activists have been in prison in Saudi Arabia since the 1st of Dec 2014.
Human rights Activists have started an online campaign demanding Saudi authorities to free Loujain al Hathloul and Maysaa Al Amoudi.
join the campaign on facebook or show your support to Loujain and maysaa by posting a video on youtube demanding Saudi authorities to release Loujain and Maysaa.
You had previously supported Manal Alsharif back in 2011 and your support brought the media attention to the matter and that played an important role in releasing Manal Alsharif.

So please join the ”free loujain and maysaa campaign” here!

A female student died after college authorities refused to allow male medics into the female-only campus

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According to the strict Sharia law in Saudi Arabia , Men and women should not  mingle together. If unrelated woman and man found together in public or private places they would face legal punishments that can be up to  6 months in prison.

Women and men in Saudi Arabia study in gender segregated schools and universities. Yet women are still acquired to wear long dress/ long sleeve school uniforms, and over the school uniform school girls at the age or above the age of 9 ( who are in the 4^th grade) must wear black Abaya, black scarf and cover their face when leaving the school.

Female schools and Universities are guarded by a guard men / security officers to make sure that women are not seeing unrelated men and are wearing the proper Islamic dress.

Last Wednesday,  a female college student in King Saud University in Riyadh died of a heart attack when the university officials barred the male paramedics from entering the girls-only college.  Amana bawzeer,  a master’s  student  at the college of social studies passed away because she did not get the proper intervention in time, Outraged students who witnessed incident tweeted.  Some have tweeted in a hashtage , ”we are blaming the college officials of Amna’s death”.

However, the Saudi local news papers are denying that Amna’s death was resulted of late intervention and said that the paramedics tried to save her life and they were not banned from entering the school.

This is not the first time that this happens in Saudi Arabia,   A tragic unforgettable incident happened 12 years ago,  when 15 girls were burnt alive in school fire in mecca , Saudi Arabia in 2002.   The young girls age between 12 to 14 were banned from leaving the school that was in fire because they were trying to escape the fire without wearing their Abayas . They were left screaming and burnt alive behind the school’s gate. The religious police and the guard men refused to open the door to let the girls escape or the fire fighters to go in because the girls were unveiled and not properly dressed, witnesses said. The religious police were also beating pushing back girls  who tried to escape the fire without their Abayas.

 The Saudi local news papers stated that deaths didn’t happen as a result of the religious police banning girls from escaping the fire, but rather the lack of fire extinguishers and alarms in the building.

Islamic preacher gets away with murder

The Famous Saudi preacher Fayhan Al Ghamdi who appears on various preaching TV channels tortured his 5 years old daughter to death because he was suspicious of her virginity.

According to the medical report, Fayhan Al ghamdi has tortured his daughter Lama with whips, electrical shocks, removed her nails,  and burnt her with an iron. Lama died in the after spending almost a year in the hospital suffering from broken arms, skull fracture,  and head bruises.

The well known preacher grew up with his grandmother after the divorce of his parents.. He quit school at the age of 9 and has been suffering from a drug and alcohol addiction.

Al Ghamdi’s ex-wife said on an interview ” before we get married the neighbors described him as very religious and god-fearing person, one week after our marriage he changed, he was doing drugs, drinking alcohol and flirting with other women, he was beating me up for no reason. I became pregnant with our daughter Lama. He was nice, he never abused her, I remember he took her away for 3 months and when they came back she was okay, there was nothing wrong with her. Until the last time, I don’t know what happened with him! But after our divorce he stopped paying child support. I remember I called him once and I asked him how would you  lecture people on religion while your acting this way, and not even paying a child support, don’t you fear god? He s use to chuckle and said my word is superior and yours is inferior ”

Al Ghamdi’s ex-wife recalls a phone call from the police persecutor asking her to come to the hospital. She said ” I went to the hospital to see my daughter, but when I saw her laying there I couldn’t even recognize her face she was brutally beaten and disfigured, she has broken bones almost everywhere in her right side of the body, broken arms and skull fracture  the doctors said she couldn’t defecate because he was beating her in the anus area and he use to close the open wounds (cuts) by burning her anus, every visit to the hospital doctors will give me more reports about injures that have been found, . She was unconscious, doctors said she will not survive but I was crying and praying for god every day”

According to the Inpatient death report from Shemiasi Hospital in Riyadh city Lama was admitted in the hospital on the 26^th of December 2011 and died on October 22 2012 in the ICU.

Fayhan Al Ghamdi was held for few months in jail waiting for his trail. Al Ghamdi then was released from prison few days ago.  The court ordered him to pay ( Diyah) which is blood money paid for the family of the victim. Ironically, according to the law the Murderer will share the money he is paying since he is the father; he is part of the family.

According to the discriminatory sharia law the Diyah ( the blood money ) must be 400.000 SR if the victim is a male and half of the money which equals 200.000 SR if the victim is a female.

This unfair outrageous verdict was not a surprise. Unfortunately, Saudi Sharia law gives the man full authority over women, a husband for instance has a full authority over his wives and the father has full authority over his daughters. They also have the right to discipline their wives, or children, beat them if they have to.

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Please check related links

The interview of Lama’s mother in arabic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSlbgV5aAjk

A pervious post on woman rights in saudi arabia

What is it like to be a Saudi Woman?

The fatwa of Binbaz about the Diay –in Arabic

http://www.binbaz.org.sa/mat/11939

Banning Hijab will discourage Saudi women from participating in the Olympics

Saudi Arabia has been under pressure from the International Olympic Committee and human-rights groups to include women athletes. It took months of negotiations with the Saudi Gov to finally approve the participation of women, under certain conditions, one is they have to obey the dress code of Islamic law. Later on, the International Judo Federation ruled that Shaherkani “will fight according to the principle and spirit of judo, so without a hijab.” This cultural and religious clash might pressure Saudi Arabia to pull out Wojdan Shaherkani, who is to compete in the +78kg judo category from the Olympics and this eventually will also discourage Saudi women from participating in the Olympics in the future. Shaherkani is due to compete in the women’s heavyweight tournament next Friday, but her participation could now be in doubt. The contraversiary is not only over wearing Hijab but also the fact the Wojdan is not a certified black belt, a stature required by Olympic regulations. The Saudi ladies have been called prostitutes of the Olympics / whores of the Olympics in a hashtag on twitter and most Islamic clerics and Shaikhs has stated that they are against Saudi women participation in the Olympics. I can tell that Saudi men are apparently not ready yet to welcome women in Sports as the two women marched behind the men, instead of walking side by side. Nevertheless, the two Saudi athletes appeared happy, smiling and waving to the crowd. a

Saudi Woman Converts to Christianity

A 28 year-old Saudi woman has decided to become Christian after she was convinced by Lebanese coworker to join the Christian religion. Saudi woman who is named Mariam left Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese Coworker along with Saudi man Helped Mariam to go to Bahrain then to Lebanon. The family of the girl is now suing the 2 guys in Saudi Arabia accusing them of misleading and deceiving their daughter.

Mariam appeared in video on youtube religious channel called jesussetmefreet  talking about how god showed her that Christianity is the right religion in her dreams. She says” I have asked god to show me the truth in my dreams and within a week  god showed me that Jesus is his son , if you are uncertain about your religion, if you feel lost, ask god to guide you and he will”

The above video shows Mariam talking to guy who was also Muslim and converted to Christianity. The video is in Arabic with no English subtitles.

Saudi twitter users have created 2 hashtags to talk about it  ‎‫#لبناني_ينصر_فتاة_سعودية‬‏ ‎‫#مريم_السعودية‬‏

Saudi people seems to be very angry and blaming that mix working environment, meaning both men and women working at the same place was the reason why she became christian and some has blamed it on her parents for not rising her well. Other people have accused her of being Shiite.  Some Saudis wrote in twitter that they want the Saudi gov to drag her back to Saudi Arabia and charge her with crime of apostasy. Yes, choosing a different religion that is not Islam is considered a crime in Saudi Arabia, and if a person proven that  she or he has left Islam, she/ or he will be facing death plenty after giving three chances to return back to Islam.

If Mariam brought back by the Saudi government, she will be charged for apostasy, and she will be given 3 chances to return to Islam, if she didn’t she will face death plenty,  in other term ” beheading”.

Mariam is not the first Saudi woman who converted to Christianity, Fatima Al Mutairi is believed to be murdered by her religious Muslim brother. It is believed that her brother has burnt her alive. I personally has read some of what she wrote back in 2008 in religious christian website, Fatima has never left Saudi Arabia. She was murdered by her brother. The Lebanese christian channels and website are the only one who reacted when they found out she was murdered. Very few Saudis know about Fatima Al Mutairi.  The website where Fatimah use to write is blocked. Unfortunately I lost the link but you can google the story of Fatimah.

Saudi online newspaper http://www.news-sa.com/snews/4780-2012-07-25-07-21-40.html

I am very sure now after I publish this post Saudis will accuse me of encouraging people to convert to Christianity or would say I’m not a muslim. Just so you know I’m Muslim, but I don’t hate other people just because they read from different book.

”My choice is what i chose to do;
and if I’m causin no harm,
it shouldn’t bother you.
Your choice is who you chose to be;
and if your causin to harm, then your alright with me.”

Ben Harper

Saudi Activist Samar Badawi Wins Woman of Courage Award

Samar Badawi is a Saudi woman who won a lawsuit against her abusive father who has been abusing her for over 15 years. She fought against the male guardianship system which implies that women should respect their male guardian no matter what he does even if he was abusive. Unfortunately, Samar was charged of disobeying her father and was sentenced to jail, even though she had all the evidences needed to prove that her father is abusing her. Despite the injustice she went through she kept on fighting along with Waleed Abulkhair who was her lawyer at that time and now they are happily married couple. After spending about 6 months in jail Samar was released. She finally won the case against her abusive father  in 2010 but  unfortunatily, not against the male guardian system. Her uncle on her father side became her male guardian as per the court order. Samar became an activist and has been participating in activities to promote women rights in Saudi Arabia. You can read more about the story here.

So what control freak sick Saudi men think about Samar winning the prize?

When I read the comments on Samarprize twitter account I found a lot of hateful, sick comments accusing Samar Badawi of disobedience and for not following Islam laws. It’s No surprise that a lot of Saudi men are pissed off and feel threatened by Samar Badwai because she became an inspiration to Saudi women who are going through what she’ve been through with her father. Samar represents a huge number of Saudi women who are being abused by their male guardians.  Women in Saudi Arabia don’t usually speak about it because male guardians are legally protected by the government using fake human-made Islamic laws, made to control women using religion. You can read more about the guardianship system in Saudi Arabia here.

I Believe Samar is a worrier, courageous and bold for taking such a step. I take my hat-off to her, Wajiha Al Huwaider, Manal Al Sharif , Eman Al Nafjan and Many others who contributed in women to drive campaign through driving, blogging and twitting.