SAUDI ARABIA Riyadh celebrates its astronaut, but detains and sentences women who defend their rights

While the mission of Rayyanah Barnawi, the first Saudi woman in space, ends, the repression continues on the ground: Fatima al-Shawarbi was sentenced to 30 years for posting messages on the Internet in defense of political prisoners. Manahel al-Otaibi ended up in jail and awaiting trial for calling for an end to male guardianship.

Riyadh () – The Wahhabi kingdom celebrates the completion of the first space mission by a Saudi woman, but within its borders it continues to repress women’s rights defenders with arrests and long prison sentences. Riyadh’s propaganda celebrates the path of reforms and liberalization sponsored by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), but the benefits for women are largely a facade, save for the right to drive and the opening to certain professional activities. Because when it comes to true equality, the road is still long and mere activism can lead to jail.

Proof of this is the case of Fatima al-Shawarbi, sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for having published some “anonymous” messages on the web and on social networks in defense of political prisoners, women’s rights and against Unemployment. The complaint comes from Rent, a website specialized in detailing the repressions and violations of rights in the Saudi kingdom: the young woman is originally from the province of Al-Asha and is less than 30 years old. The criminal judges (SCC) also imposed a travel ban on him for 30 years and six months.

Shawarbi allegedly used an anonymous Twitter account to denounce the violations committed against the Howeitat, a tribe in Saudi Arabia that was the victim of repression and forced displacement by the government for the construction of the Neom mega-project. The activist, from her anonymous account, would have requested that her identity be revealed and her disappearance reported if she did not post messages for more than a month. local sources of Middle East Eye (MME) affirm that she was arrested in November 2020 and sentenced at the beginning of 2023, but the news has not come out until a few days ago.

The arrest of 29-year-old Manahel al-Otaibi (in the photo) dates back to November last year, but in this case too the news has come out recently. She was accused of promoting on the Internet a hashtag to ask for an end to male guardianship. Known for her activism in favor of women’s rights, she was arrested and imprisoned for spreading messages and petitions from her Twitter and Snapchat accounts, which led to her arrest by the Riyadh authorities. She is a gym teacher by profession, in the past she campaigned on several occasions in favor of the emancipation of women, coining the slogan #societyisready. At the moment, there are no pending trials or final sentences against her, so she remains in a cell in preventive detention, awaiting trial. However, the precedents do not speak in their favor, since in the past, for similar acts, the accused women were tried and convicted of “sedition”, including those who fought for their inheritance rights or to end their marriage with a violent husband.

Fatima al-Shawarbi and Manahel al-Otaibi are just the latest in a long line of women arrested and sentenced for their fight for their rights through social networks and the Internet. The repression intensified last August when Salma al Shehab was sentenced to 34 years, later reduced to 27, for her fight for the right of women to drive and for calling for the release of Loujain al Hathloul. Nourah al-Qahtani, a mother of five, was sentenced a week later to 45 years in prison for tweeting from two anonymous accounts. Saad Almadi, a Saudi-American, was sentenced to 16 years for posting on social media, a sentence that was increased on appeal to 19 years before she was released last March, although she remains under a 16-year travel ban. years. Abdullah Jelan, a university graduate who dreamed of becoming a health educator for the government, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, plus a 10-year travel ban, for anonymous tweets about unemployment. And finally, he continues the trial against the activist and influencer sisters Manahel and Fouz al-Otaibi.

These news of arrests and convictions contrast with the celebrations of Rayyanah Barnawi, the first Arab woman in space who, at the end of the Axiom-2 mission, spoke of the “beginning of a new era” in the sector. The four-person crew, including a private (and wealthy) US citizen, aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom craft touched down off Florida yesterday, returning from the International Space Station (ISS). Barnawi is the first Saudi woman to travel into space, an event celebrated as historic and of great value to Saudi women, but not enough to cover up the ongoing repression against those who fight every day, and in their daily lives, for the rights and freedom.