{"id":41111,"date":"2024-05-02T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/02\/saudi-activist-sentenced-to-11-years-in-prison-over-choice-of-clothing\/"},"modified":"2024-05-02T13:00:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T13:00:11","slug":"saudi-activist-sentenced-to-11-years-in-prison-over-choice-of-clothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/02\/saudi-activist-sentenced-to-11-years-in-prison-over-choice-of-clothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi activist sentenced to 11 years in prison ‘over choice of clothing’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Saudi<\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

\n

A women’s rights activist and fitness influencer from Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 11 years in prison over her choice of clothes, human rights groups have claimed. <\/p>\n

Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced in January but details of her case only recently emerged in Saudi Arabia’s<\/a><\/strong> formal reply to a United Nations human rights request after the country claimed she was jailed for “terrorist offences”.<\/p>\n

In the letter, the conservative nation outlined their case for arresting and charging the 29-year-old.<\/p>\n

They claimed she was arrested over “terrorist offences” – a narrative challenged by Amnesty International and Al Qst, a Saudi human rights group based in London.<\/p>\n

The human rights groups warned that Ms Al-Otaibi was actually jailed over her choice of clothing and social media posts where she posted the hashtag “abolish male guardianship”.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Manahel al-Otaibi. Pic: ALQST\/AP
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ms Al-Otaibi wore what were deemed to be “indecent clothes” in videos and went shopping without an abaya, a long robe, the groups said.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia claimed that Ms Al-Otaibi was “convicted of terrorist offences that have no bearing on her exercise of freedom of opinion and expression or her social media posts”.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism law, under which Ms Al-Otaibi was convicted, has been criticised by the United Nations as an overly broad tool to stifle dissent.<\/p>\n

Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International’s campaigner on Saudi Arabia, said: “Manahel’s conviction and 11-year sentence is an appalling and cruel injustice.<\/p>\n

“With this sentence, the Saudi authorities have exposed the hollowness of their much-touted women’s rights reforms in recent years and demonstrated their chilling commitment to silencing peaceful dissent.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n \"Follow
\n <\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n
\n Follow Sky News on WhatsApp<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News<\/p>\n

Tap here<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Lina Alhathloul, Al Qst’s head of monitoring and advocacy, said: “Manahel’s confidence that she could act with freedom could have been a positive advertisement for Mohammed bin Salman<\/a><\/strong>‘s much-touted narrative of leading women’s rights reforms in the country.<\/p>\n

“Instead, by arresting her and now imposing this outrageous sentence on her, the Saudi authorities have once again laid bare the arbitrary and contradictory nature of their so-called reforms, and their continuing determination to control Saudi Arabia’s women.”<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia denied allegations from the well established human rights groups in its letter to the UN.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia’s international media office and the UN Human Rights Office have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
US police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters<\/a>
Ex-politician beats wife to death in CCTV footage<\/a>
Face of 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman revealed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n \"The\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n The women’s rights activist was sentenced in January
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ms Al-Otaibi was first arrested on 16 November 2022 and detained in a women’s prison in Riyadh, according to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

She was eventually found guilty of “having committed terrorist offences” and handed her sentence on 9 January 2024.<\/p>\n

However, the charity groups said that Ms Al-Otaibi “forcibly disappeared” from November 2023 until April 2024, when she was able to contact her family again. She told them she was being held in solitary confinement and had a broken leg following alleged physical abuse.<\/p>\n

Her sister, Fawzia al Otaibi, also faced similar charges but fled Saudi Arabia after being summoned for questioning in 2022, fearing arrest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, came to power in 2017 promising widespread social and economic reforms.<\/p>\n

He eased some curbs in male guardianship laws, and allowed women to drive cars, get a passport, travel alone, register births, deaths and divorces. However, the laws still make it more difficult for women to obtain a divorce than a man.<\/p>\n

The kingdom still faces scrutiny over its human rights record and rights activists have said that Saudi Arabian women continue to face restrictions.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A women’s rights activist and fitness influencer from Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 11 years in prison over her choice of clothes, human rights groups have claimed. Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced in January but details of her case only recently emerged in Saudi Arabia’s formal reply to a United Nations human rights request after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/05\/768x432\/skynews-manahel-al-otaibi-alqst_6540353.jpg?20240502123519","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14188,4336,10278,5918,8576,10622,111],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41113,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41111\/revisions\/41113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}