The US president-elect has pledged to make the kingdom a “pariah” over its human rights failings.
The decision to restore relations with Qatar is a smart one. But can the Saudi crown prince follow through?
Encouraging celebrities to speak up, the push-back campaign is a countermeasure against Saudi Arabia’s efforts to use influential people to whitewash its human rights violations.
Hathloul has been held since 2018 when she was arrested with at least a dozen other activists, all campaigning for women’s rights, including the freedom to drive.
Loujain al Hathloul’s activism for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia made her a target of the autocratic state. It led to her being jailed for more than two years on flimsy charges.
World's top economies are virtually debating Covid-19 action plan and measures to stem the pandemic's impact on global economies, including debt relief for the poorest countries.
Hathloul, whose detention since 2018 has made her emblematic of the fight for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, began refusing food on Monday evening, her sister Lina al Hathloul says.
The grand ambitions of the Saudi crown prince seem to be falling apart amid the new realities in the age of coronavirus.
The recent investigation exposing the UAE's cyber-surveillance program fits in neatly with the country's quest to silence democratic actors across the Middle East.
The move is the latest in a series of measures aimed at increasing the rights of women in the kingdom, even as rights groups accuse Riyadh of cracking down on women's rights activists.
Loujain al Hathloul accused interrogators of torture and sexual harassment, a charge vehemently denied by Saudi Arabia.
The continued imprisonment of women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia is a clear sign that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's vision for reform is about optics, not change.
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