The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has frequently been in the news for human rights violations, marring the image crown prince Mohammad bin Salman (often referred to as MBS) has attempted to craft for himself as a progressive ruler who is ushering in a new golden age for Saudi Arabia. Chief among his efforts to portray himself as a departure from the regressive policies of his predecessors was lifting the ban on women driving in the kingdom - almost ironically, one of the most damning incidents in the past couple of years has been the arrest, detainment, and alleged torture of activist Loujain al-Hathloul. A graduate of the University of British Columbia, al-Hathloul was arrested in March 2018 when attempting to drive into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates where no restrictions on women driving exist. Since then, she has been detained in a prison, where her family has alleged on several occasions that she has been electrocuted, sexually assaulted, threatened with rape and murder, and put into solitary confinement for long periods of time. al-Hathloul, who is currently on a hunger strike, has become a symbol for the continued mistreatment of human rights activists in Saudi Arabia, with multiple diplomatic envoys, world governments, and human rights organizations attempting to intervene on her behalf.
Beyond Loujain al-Hathloul, Saudi Arabia has perhaps inadvertently built a reputation for being one of the most repressive regimes in the world. In 2019, they held the second highest numbers of writers and public intellectuals in prison globally (PEN America), they were ranked the 170th worst country for press freedom in the world out of 180 (Reporters Without Borders), they ranked 146th out of 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index (World Economic Forum), and overall, were the the world’s seventh least free country (Freedom House). Political parties, trade unions, independent human rights groups are banned altogether with the kingdom denying access to foreign organizations such as Amnesty International, while protests and public demonstrations were prohibited by the Saudi Ministry of Interior in 2011. Particular attention was called to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record after the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was dismembered and killed in the Saudi consultate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. Khashoggi had been extremely critical of MBS in particular, and had fled Saudi Arabia in 2017, expressing concern for his life.
While these statistics and incidents leave most with no doubt about Saudi Arabia’s utter disregard - some may say contempt - for human rights, the kingdom remains committed to rebranding themselves as a progressive beacon of the region. In what Human Rights Watch has called “a deliberate strategy to deflect from the country’s image as a pervasive human rights violator,” MBS has undertaken a spending plan dubbed “Vision 2030,” which aims to attract tourists - and foreign investment - while restructuring Saudi’s economy. A sweeping set of reforms was announced in July 2020, when the Council of Ministers implemented amendments to three landmark laws, all of which dealt with the kingdom’s highly controversial and discriminatory male guardianship system. Firstly, a change made to the Labor Law clarified that a “worker” - until then widely understood as being synonymous with a man - could be female as well, and introduced new protections against discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, disability, of age. This is particularly significant in that it is now illegal for private employers to insist that potential female employees provide proof of approval of their male guardian. Secondly, these reforms included changes to civil status issues, as women can now register their children’s births with the civil status office in addition to informing the office of death, marriage, or divorce. Women can also now be considered a “head of household,” granting them significantly more rights where their children are concerned. Finally, for the first time, Saudi women over the age of 21 can obtain their own passports without being forced to seek permission from their male guardian - in mid-August, this was expanded by a change in regulation allowing women over 21 to travel abroad without required permission from their male guardian. In addition to these legislative changes, sports games and music concerts have been opened up to women, allowing them to participate in civil society in a way not seen before. Major reforms, to be sure - however, women operating outside the scope of these reforms remain in jail, subjected to horrific treatment, and on a lesser scale, severe social stigma. As Walid al-Hathloul put it in the Guardian, “How can we claim we are opening up to the world when we don’t even respect basic human rights?” Saudi women still need a male guardian’s approval to get married, male guardians can still file cases for “disobedience” against their female charges (daughters, wives, or relatives), which can lead either to forcible return to their male guardian’s house or in extreme cases, imprisonment.
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch have widely reported on the atrocious conditions women rights activists in particular face in prison. Amnesty International’s Middle East research director, Lynn Maalouf, has released a statement saying “We are extremely concerned about the wellbeing of these activists, who have been in arbitrary detention for around nine months simply for standing up for human rights… we are calling on the Saudi Arabian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all human rights defenders who are being detained solely for their peaceful human rights work.” Saudi authorities have dismissed these torture allegations as baseless, claiming that “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s judiciary system does not condone, promote, or allow the use of torture. Anyone… being investigated is going through the standard judiciary process led by the public prosecution while being held for questioning, which does not in any way rely on torture either physical, sexual, or psychological.'' Reports by Amnesty International say otherwise, providing evidence that a total of 10 activists were tortured and sexually abused during their first three months of detention alone. One activist was wrongly told her family members had died, and was kept under this pretension for a full month, while others alleged being tortured with electric shocks. In addition to discrediting the progressive image the kingdom is attempting to craft for itself, the treatment of women violates social norms commonly held in both Saudi Arabia and Islam itself, according to Loujain al-Hathloul’s sister, Alia al-Hathloul.
Among those who have been subjected to the harshest treatment are womens rights activists who have protested the ban on driving, prior to its lifting in 2016. While Loujain al-Hathloul is possibly the most well-known, Aziza al-Yousef, Eman al-Nafjan, and Hatoon Al-Fassi have also attracted media attention for protesting both the female driving ban and male guardianship system. Yousef, in 2016, started a petition to have the male guardianship system dissolved - and in 2013, both Nafjan and and Yousef participated in a protest demanding the government end the driving ban for women. Beyond the troubling allegations of torture, Saudi Arabia has attracted criticism for the secrecy with which these trials have been conducted, beginning with the charges themselves. According to the International Federation for Human Rights, these activists (as of 2019) had yet to be publicly presented with any charges from the authorities. Vague accusations have been leveled against them by local media, including “financial support to enemies overseas”, and “suspicious contacts with foreign entities.” Perhaps most concerning, their hearings have been closed to reporters and diplomats, preventing any third parties from seeing if there have been any legitimate claims leveled against them.
Beyond the continued outcry from human rights groups, diplomatic and supranational organizations have condemned Saudi violations of human rights. In 2019, Australia delivered a joint statement at the UN in Geneva on behalf of Member States, a cross-regional group, expressing “serious concerns over the persecution and intimidation of activists, including women human rights defenders, involving reports of torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearances, unfair trials, arbitrary detention, and impunity for perpetrators.” ISHR’s Human Rights Council advocate Salma El Hosseiny added, “A cross-regional group of States led by Australia have stood up today for human rights despite the political and economic costs… The international communty sent a strong and clear message to the government of Saudi Arabia that its crimes won’t go unanswered and that as a Council member, it will be held to heightened scrutiny.” In the United States, forty-five members of Congress have formally and publicly expressed concern over Saudi Arabia hosting the 2020 G20 summit. Similarly, the European Parliament voted to downgrade its representation at the summit in response to Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses.
It remains to be seen whether a combination of following through on reforms, a return to the type of equitable and humanitarian treatment Islam demands, and pressure from the international community will push Saudi Arabia to change its despicable track record on human rights abuses.