By Scarlett Mora, age 10
Manahel al-Otaibi is a 29-year-old women’s rights activist who got arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government claims she committed cybercrimes and broke the kingdom’s counterterrorism law. However, human rights organizations say she was simply expressing criticism of the law that prevents women from making their own decisions.
Al-Otaibi was held in solitary confinement and was abused so much that she broke a leg. Amnesty International and ALQST, a human rights organization that documents and promotes human rights in Saudi Arabia, are calling for her to be released from confinement. She is not alone. Other women have been given harsh prison sentences for tweeting or sharing their opinions online, including Nourah al-Qahtani, who received a 45-year sentence in August 2022 because she tweeted calling for the release of political prisoners and expressed criticism of her country’s human rights abuses.
Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International’s campaigner on Saudi Arabia, commented on al-Otaibi’s sentence, saying, “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.”
Women in Saudi Arabia won the right to drive in June 2018. Saudi Arabian women have also been able to work as university administrators, astronauts, and bank directors. However, the male guardianship system still allows male relatives to make decisions about women’s lives.
Saudi Arabia’s personal status rules were made into law on International Women’s Day in 2022. The personal status law restricts the freedom of women by requiring permission by a male to make decisions. These include if a woman wants to marry, needs a court’s permission for guardianship over a child, and if the father claims that the mother is “incompetent” and should have her guardianship terminated. Also, the personal status law deters women from marrying, divorce, or remarriage.
“We have more and more women in prisons, either for not wearing abaya or for dancing in public or for tweeting their opinions, whatever the subject, even on unemployment,” said Lina al-Hathloul, head of monitoring and communication for the rights group ALQST.
Groups like ALQST and the Middle East Democracy Center have been committed to documenting human rights abuses and calling for the release of political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. In early 2025, Saudi Arabia released dozens of political prisoners early, including Salma al-Shehab, who was sentenced to 27 years, and Fatima al-Shawarbi, sentenced to 30 years.
Many people still remain in prison in Saudi Arabia for expressing their beliefs or are subject to a travel ban.
