Saudi Arabia Sentenced This Woman Activist To 11 Years In Prison For "Supporting Women’s Rights" On Social Media
29-year-old fitness instructor and women's rights activist, Manahel al-Otaibi, was arrested for advocating for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has sentenced this woman activist to 11 years in prison for “supporting women’s rights” on social media.
29-year-old fitness instructor and women's rights activist, Manahel al-Otaibi, was arrested for advocating for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
In 2019, Al-Otaibi had praised social reforms introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to expand women’s rights in the kingdom.
The reforms include lifting a ban on women driving and changing the dress code so that women would no longer be required to wear an abaya – a long, loose-fitting robe.
But she was arrested in November 2022 for calling for an end to the male guardianship system, which requires women to have a male guardian to make critical decisions about her life, including travel, marriage, work and accessing healthcare.
Al-Otaibi was also charged for sharing videos of herself wearing what the court said was "indecent clothes" and "going to the shops without wearing an abaya.
In January, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison for “terrorist offences” in a secret trial.
The ruling was only made public weeks later, after the UN requested information about her case.
Al-Otaibi said in April 2024 that she had been held in solitary confinement, had her leg broken due to physical abuse and was denied medical care, according to Amnesty International.
The Saudi government has jailed and arrested numerous women activists who have been critical of the government.
Just weeks before it lifted the ban on women driving in 2018, it jailed several women activists who had campaigned for the right to drive.
In 2022, a court sentenced a Saudi woman studying in the UK to 34 years in prison for using Twitter and following and retweeting activists.
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