Loujain-Al-Hatoul Awarded a Top European Rights Award for Championing Women’s Rights
As the world is becoming a progressive one, there are people who believe that we do not need feminism. But nothing could be further from the truth. Women have been struggling to fight against oppression and societal norms since forever. Although many battles have been won by won like the right to vote and education, to become a part of the government, the need for equal rights for women needs to be amplified more and more.
Let us talk about a women’s rights activist Loujain-al-hatoul
Who is Al-Hatoul?
Al-Hatoul is has been active and influential in the movement to lift a driving ban on women and what is called the ‘Waliayah” or the male guardianship system. It has only been a recent thing in Saudi Arabia that women were allowed to travel without taking permission from a male guardian. This included their right to apply for passports and register their marriages and divorces.
In 2014, Loujain, who has a driving license that was issued in Uae, faced an unprecedented situation. She was detained for 75 days for attempting to drive into Saudi Arabia from the Uae. Furthering this, she was arrested along with several other women’s rights activists, weeks before The Saudi Arabian Authorities lifted the ban on women drivers in 2018 (known to be the last such ban in the world)
Al-Hatoul also stood for elections in Saudi Arabia in 2015, which was the first time women were allowed to vote and stand for elections. Although her name was not added to the ballet as reported by Amnesty International.
Later, Al-Hatoul was detained on the grounds of national security in 2018. She was booked under article 6 of the anti-cybercrime law that penalises the production and transmission of material deemed to impinge on public order, religious values, public morals, and life, as per UN Human Rights.
She was detained for more than 10 months, after which she was not charged, and there was no trial. According to amnesty international, which is a campaign to end atrocities of human rights, she was given electric shocks, was waterboarded, sexually harassed, and was threatened with rape and murder during the time of the detention.
In February 2021, Loujan-al-hatoul was released after spending more than 1000 days or 3years in prison detention. Her release came about a week after the US authorities called on Saudi Arabia to ameliorate its human rights laws, along with releasing all women’s rights activists and women political prisoners. Joe Biden, during his campaign for the 2020 presidential elections, emphasised human rights stating about the issues in US-Saudi relations and the need to improve them.
In December 2020, Al-Hatoul was sentenced to five years and eight months of detention by a Saudi Specialised criminal court. The authorities had charged her under the state’s board counter-terrorism laws for undermining national security and trying to change the political system of the country, as specified in a Reuters report. It was then tweeted by her sister, Lina-Al-Hatoul that lujian felt miserable after being sentenced. Almost after three years of unfair and bias torture, solitary confinement, she has now been labelled as a terrorist. Al-hatoul then appealed against the sentence and asked for the investigation.
Did the US government play a role in her release?
As mentioned above, if elected, Biden would take strict measures to improvise the US-Saudi human rights violation. He also mentioned that Saudi would be dealt with in a much more rigorous way than under Trump’s administration. According to SWP’s Guido Steinberg, it’s very possible that the changes in power from Trump to Biden played a “significant role” in her release.
Current status of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia
The timing of the court decision — three weeks after Biden took office — is not mere coincidence, much say. Loujain’s sister Alia also thinks pressure from Washington helped get her sister out of jail earlier.
Although Saudi seems to be a progressing country now, by lifting a ban on women’s driving and allowing them to travel without a male guardian’s permission and file applications for passports, marriages and divorces, there is still a long way to go to win the battle. There are still instances where women’s rights activists are being arrested.
The state has also been called out for suppressing freedom of speech and expression, freedom to form associations and assembly; it is clear that Saudi Arabia takes a mellow view of dissent and has attacked many women’s rights activists.
According to a report published by the British non-profit Reprieve, Saudi Arabia has carried out its 800th execution under the crown prince’s five-year rule, and as per Amnesty International, the kingdom executed 184 people in 2019.
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Originally published at https://www.fuzia.com.