Arrests in the kingdom

The recently rekindled hope that Saudi Arabia will open up to women is fast losing steam. With only weeks left before the lifting of the official prohibition on women driving, the arrests of at least 10 prominent Saudi women’s rights campaigners have raised questions. The pro-women reform initiative by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been lauded as a move that would slowly open up the kingdom’s archaic social mores. However, Salman’s move has not sat well with the country’s more conservative factions. The official reason given by Saudi authorities for the arrests is that the women “supported the lifting of the prohibition on women driving.” This creates a strange situation where supporting the government’s own initiative can be seen as a crime. The reality is more complicated. Many have pointed out that the arrests may just have been a way to appease some of the deep divisions in Saudi society, and show the conservatives that the kingdom has not caved in to the demands of women’s rights campaigners. This is why celebrations of a new era for women in Saudi Arabia must not be held prematurely.

In the last few months, a social media campaign has been naming and shaming a number of women rights’ activists in Saudi Arabia. Media outlets have been showing their pictures and calling them ‘traitors’. And, let’s not forget that all this is not restricted to the driving issue. The bigger issue remains the guardianship system. Women require permission from their fathers, brothers, husbands or sons for a large set of life decisions. Women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia have – for good reason – called for a radical reform of the guardianship system. Saudi activists have to struggle for rights that most women in the world take for granted. The interior ministry has said that it is investigating them for communicating with “foreign entities” to “destabilise the kingdom.” If anything, the biggest fears for the kingdom are palace intrigues. A few months back, the crown prince had arrested 300 members of the royal family for corruption, as he announced a plan to open up the Saudi economy to foreign investment. The moves have not been appreciated by many of the inner circle of the country’s ruling elite. Could it be that the crackdown on female activists is designed to placate those intrigues – by reasserting the message that no one is going to spared for asking for more than what the rulers determine? More arrests are expected as most of the world speculates whether Saudi Arabia is serious about reform.