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Loujain al-Hathloul: All you need to know about Saudi activist who took the wheel
In March 2018, Loujain Al-Hathloul was arrested in the UAE and forcibly flown to Riyadh. Saudi analysts say fearing sanction for their role in Yemen the kingdom has started to make small compromises, starting with the release of al-Hathloul.
Loujain al-Hathloul, who was released on Wednesday after three years in detention, has been a key figure in Saudi Arabia’s women’s rights movement. In May 2018, al-Hathloul, along with a dozen other women activists, was arrested after being deported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Al-Hathloul is currently under probation and is not allowed to leave the country or her home. Saudi Arabia has also imposed a five-year travel ban on the activist.
Who is Al-Hathoul?
Al-Hathloul was an instrumental figure in the Women to Drive Movement, which fought against the Saudi law that prohibited women from driving. Al-Hathloul in support of the movement drove from the UAE to Saudi Arabia and documented it. She was stopped at the Saudi border and later sent to prison for 73 days for defying the ban, the arrest, according to al-Hathloul shaped her activism for the years to come.
She stood for the municipal elections in 2015, becoming one of the first Saudi women to do so, even though she was banned from contesting the polls without being given valid reasons. Al-Hathloul later told Agence France-Presse that she wanted to run “to increase the percentage of women’s participation”. That same year hundreds of Saudi women launched campaigns to run for public office and ultimately 20 of them were elected to the approximately 2,100-member municipal council, a monumental achievement for the Saudi women’s movement.
In 2016, al-Hathloul launched a movement against the Saudi guardianship law by sending a petition to King Salman calling for an end of the law. Her petition had 14,000 co-signatories. The ‘Wilayah’ male guardianship system requires Saudi women to seek the permission or accompaniment of a close male relative in matters of work, leisure, finances, law, and health. The system was reformed in August 2019 by King Salman’s son and heir the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), but by then al-Hathloul and many like her were already behind bars. The reform also did not give Saudi women the right to marry without seeking the permission of a male relative.
Why was she arrested?
In March 2018, Hathloul was arrested in the UAE and forcibly flown to Riyadh where she was held under house arrest before being moved to a prison in May. After months of rigorous detention, her trial began in Riyadh in May 2019. On December 28, 2020, she was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison under the country's counter-terrorism law, on charges of communicating with foreign diplomats, journalists and rights organizations and pushing for women’s rights.
Al-Hathloul’s family have accused the Saudi government of torturing her in detention. Reuters reported that al-Hathloul and other activists was subjected to electric shocks, flogging, and sexual assault. Walid al-Hathloul, Loujain’s brother, told the Guardian in May 2019 that Saud al-Qahtani, the former adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, visited Hathloul in detention and supervised her torture.
“He sat in on one of the sessions. He told her: ‘I’ll kill you, cut you into pieces, throw you in the sewer system. But before that, I’ll rape you,’” Walid told the Guardian.
The Biden connection
Al-Hathloul’s family had pinned their hopes on Joe Biden getting elected as the US president. Biden’s commitment of a tougher stance on Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses was in direct contrast to Trump’s who had earlier dismissed such concerns. The fact that her release happened within a month of President Biden entering the Oval Office is not a coincidence according to many Saudi watchers. Biden has also promised to adopt a tougher stance on the Saudis funding of the war in Yemen under the Crown Prince. Saudi analysts say fearing sanction for their role in Yemen the kingdom has started to make small compromises, starting with the release of al-Hathloul.
