Supporters
condemn length of sentences as bid by authorities to silence criticism
 |
| A Saudi Arabian woman drives a car as part of a campaign to defy the ban on women driving. Photograph: AP |
Two
prominent female rights activists who went to the aid of a woman they believed
to be in distress are expected to go to jail in Saudi Arabia on Sunday after
the failure of their appeal against a 10-month prison sentence and a two-year
travel ban.
Wajeha
al-Huwaider, a writer who has repeatedly defied Saudi laws by driving a car,
and Fawzia al-Oyouni were arrested for taking a food parcel to the house of
someone they thought was in an abusive relationship. In June they were found
guilty on a sharia law charge of takhbib – incitement of a wife to defy the
authority of her husband, thus undermining the marriage.
Campaigners
say they are "heroes" who have been given heavy sentences to punish
them for speaking out against Saudi restrictions on women's rights, which
include limited access to education and child marriage as well as not being
able to drive or even travel in a car without a male relative being present.
In 2007 a
Saudi appeal court doubled a sentence of 90 lashes to be given to a teenager
because she had been in a car with a male friend when they were abducted and
gang-raped by seven men.
Suad
Abu-Dayyeh, an activist for the group Equality Now, said the authorities had
been trying to silence the two women for years and their sentence "is
unfortunate and scandalous". It marked a dangerous escalation of how far
Saudi authorities were willing to go.
"These
women are extremely brave and active in fighting for women's rights in Saudi
Arabia, and this is a way for the Saudi authorities to silence them," she
said. "If they are sent to jail, it sends a very clear message to
defenders of human rights that they should be silent and stop their activities
– not just in Saudi Arabia, but across Arab countries. These women are innocent
– they should be praised for trying to help a woman in need, not imprisoned.
They now find themselves at the mercy of the system they have fought so
tirelessly to change."
According
to reports, this is also the first time in Saudi legal history that a travel
ban has been imposed in a case involving domestic issues.
"This
case and the system of lifelong male guardianship of women in Saudi Arabia
shows that protecting a husband's dominant, even abusive, position in the
family is far more important than his wife's wellbeing," said Suad
Abu-Dayyeh.
The women
themselves believe they may have been set up, that they were contacted by text
message by a woman claiming to be the mother of Natalie Morin, a Canadian
national married to a Saudi who has herself been campaigning for several years
to be allowed to leave the country with her three young children – something
she says the authorities will not allow her to do.
The text,
in June 2011, said she had been abused by her husband, an unemployed former
Saudi intelligence officer, who had then left for a wedding and left her and
her children locked in their apartment in the eastern city of Dammam for a week
and that they were running out of food and water. When the two women arrived in
Morin's street they were immediately arrested.
"Actually
when we went to there, the minute we arrived a police car arrived," said
Wajeha al-Huwaider. "I'm sure the judge knows that it was a trap and they
meant to catch us at that time in order to make a case against us."
At first
they were charged with trying to aid Morin escape to the Canadian embassy in
Riyadh, but the intervention of a local member of the Saudi royal family led to
those charges being dropped, because, said Huwaider, even he was embarrassed at
the obvious nature of the set-up.
Morin was
also arrested and held for several hours. It was not until a year later that
the two women were told they were to face the new charge of takhbib, a law that
effectively puts all aid workers and activists helping Saudi women in need of
protection from domestic violence, at risk.
Morin was
not permitted to testify at their trial earlier this year that she had never
met Huwaider and Oyouni. She has declared support for them on her blog writing:
"I am sorry for what's happening to madam Wajeha al-Huwaider and her
friend." She said the "two Saudi women find themselves in a serious
legal problem with jail just for trying to help me … there is no evidence for
the charges that are against her and her friend."
Huwaider
and Oyouni's conviction has been condemned by numerous human rights
organisations, including the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch,
Equality Now and Pen International.
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