Under the title "What they did was terrifying: the brutal silencing of a women's activist," the British newspaper "The Guardian" published an investigation prepared by Ruth Mikaelson, to talk about Loujain al-Hathloul, the Saudi activist detained in Ibn Salman's prisons.
It is strange and remarkable, according to the Guardian investigation, that the Saudi activist who was demonized outside her country is considered a symbol of resistance and defense of women's rights, but in Saudi Arabia she is considered a threat to the country's security.
And she quoted her brother Walid al-Hathloul, who lives in Canada, where he stayed to avoid the travel ban imposed on her family after her arrest last year. The woman was driving the car, and she kept asking questions.”
When she was stopped while driving in the Emirates and deported to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi rulers had begun their last brutal efforts to silence her, says Mikaelson. She was detained for three days, then released, after which she was arrested from her family's home in Riyadh. She was blindfolded, put in the trunk of the car, and taken to the detention center, which she described as a “place of terror,” where she was tortured and threatened with rape and death. She has been detained for more than a year.
With Loujain Al-Hathloul, 10 other women were arrested in a campaign targeting women activists who defended women's right to drive. The arrest included the veteran activist Aziza Al-Youssef and Iman Al-Najfan. This prompted human rights activists to describe the Saudi crackdown as a “year of shame,” in which preachers, journalists, writers, and activists were also arrested. Eleven of them were brought to court on charges of “carrying out an activity that undermined the security, stability and social peace of the Kingdom,” and amid accusations of communicating with foreign diplomats and journalists. Seven of them were released on bail, but Walid al-Hathloul does not expect the same treatment for his sister.
Observers say that Al-Hathloul was treated badly in prison for her leadership role as a female activist, as he viewed her work as a slap in the face of the narrative promoted by the kingdom, which is that change comes from the top. As the trial continues, no one knows how her imprisonment will end.
Hala Al-Dosari, a Saudi human rights activist and researcher at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at New York University, says that bringing women to court is “a deterrent and they were treated to set an example for any woman who thinks of doing the same thing.”
According to “Amnesty International,” the women were detained for a month in an unknown location and subjected to torture, electric shocks, and physical and psychological torture. Walid says that after a month of her arrest, Loujain called her family from a hotel in Jeddah. “Whenever the parents asked about her situation, she would reply that she could not answer. Apparently someone was telling her what to say.”
Al-Dosari believes that Al-Hathloul was specifically targeted among the female activists, and “she was subjected to physical torture while she was in detention. This reveals the state’s awareness of its influence and the guiding force it represents for the society that is linked to it and its aspirations.”
Walid says that Saud Al-Qahtani, the notorious adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, visited her in detention to supervise her torture, and “attended one of the sessions and told her: I will kill you, cut you, and throw you in the sewage water, and before that I will rape you.”
Walid continues to say that his sister is still worried about the condition of the woman outside the prison, not about her condition. He says: “Even in prison, and although she did not see the woman when she was allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, she kept asking me about their feelings and whether they enjoyed the right to drive.” He added: “She was thinking about them despite being in prison, which is a place where she does not think about others” and “she did not abandon her principles, as she considered it a basic right, while she was there thinking about others.
This is her personality, she cares about others more than she cares about herself.”
Roza Khan, a friend who met Jane at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, says she was “always outspoken, with an intoxicating laugh that makes heads turn. She is always confident and very knowledgeable. She was not afraid to express her opinion, and it was exciting to be friends with someone like her.”
Oruba Jamal, who worked with Khan to defend the Saudi activist within the “Friends of Loujain” group and demand her release, published a tweet and a photo of her at the event held at the University of British Columbia in 2012 and commented on the photo: “As is the case, it is in the center".
Khan said that Al-Hathloul used to drive the car anywhere while she was in Canada, and she usually offered her colleagues to take them for a ride in the car: “For everyone, it (the car) is a necessary need, but for someone who came from Saudi Arabia, it is a kind of luxury and being able to drive a car ".
Lujain al-Hathloul continued to build her presence on the Internet and strengthened her reputation as a critic of laws that give males the right to guardianship over women. These are the laws that prohibit women from traveling or doing independent work without the permission of their guardian.
Khan asserts: “Although she was an outspoken critic and a liberal woman, she was patriotic, and you will not hear her criticize her culture or government in one way or another,” adding that “Saudi Arabia and its culture are part of it and all it was calling for was secondary reforms led by (women) ) for the modern world.”
Waleed says that his sister was not satisfied with defending women's rights in Saudi Arabia from a distance. Loujain made the news in 2013 when her father recorded a video of her driving home from the airport as part of the “women should drive” movement, which led to a police crackdown.
A year later, she drove her car from the UAE to the Saudi border, where she was held for 73 days behind bars. It is an experience she described as enriching. Al-Dosari says that she was impressed by Al-Hathloul when she met her at a conference held in the United States, "and I felt that this is a personality that should be supported as an icon and an agent of change." "For me, she was an impressive example of someone who has everything to live in luxury but is willing to take risks for people," she adds. Al-Dosari referred to Al-Hathloul several times as an “icon,” saying that she ignited fear in the heart of the ruling authority because “she was a voice that was not empowered by the state.”
Her family is waiting for her call every Sunday from her cell, which is now vacant after the release of her colleagues. Defenders fear that she will be subjected to torture again, but she will not worry her family, as Walid says, she is “shocked and does not think in a good way,” and “because they destroyed her reputation, and it is better for her to remain in prison because what they did to me was terrifying.”
However, his sister's reputation was not destroyed, as she, Al-Nafjan, and Nouf Abdel-Aziz won the Ben/Barbie Freedom Award in America this year. And in April, Time magazine named her among the 100 most influential people in 2019.
Increasing Al-Hathloul Al-Dawla's reputation as an inspiring female activist is tantamount to fulfilling her mother's dream. Khan recalls how Loujain told her that her mother saw a picture of a businesswoman on the cover of a magazine and gathered her daughters together and told them that she wanted them to be like that woman in the magazine and to “know what they are doing, and she asked them not to be afraid, take leadership and work to achieve ambitions no matter what it takes.”