NewStats: 3,264,049 , 8,182,418 topics. Date: Monday, 09 June 2025 at 12:37 PM 695e6y

Human rights groups are calling for the release of a Saudi woman, who they say has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for ing women’s rights and for the way she dressed.

Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old fitness instructor and women’s rights activist, was sentenced during a “secret hearing” before the kingdom’s Specialized Criminal Court on January 9, 2024, Amnesty International and the London-based Saudi rights organization ALQST said in a t statement Tuesday.







However, the decision to imprison al-Otaibi only surfaced weeks later, after the Saudi government replied to a request by United Nations Special Rapporteurs for information about the case, the watchdogs say.

Al-Otaibi “stands accused of terrorist offences and was arrested in accordance with the law under a legally valid warrant,” Saudi Arabia’s mission to Geneva said in a letter in January, in response to the UN request.

Amnesty and ALQST allege Al-Otaibi’s charges are related “solely to her choice of clothing and expression of her views online, including calling on social media for an end to Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system, publishing videos of herself wearing ‘indecent clothes,’ and ‘going to the shops without wearing an abaya’.”

Her sister, Fawzia al-Otaibi, faces similar charges but was able to flee Saudi Arabia after she was summoned for questioning in 2022, they said.

Saudi Arabia’s authorities “must immediately and unconditionally” release Manahel al-Otaibi, as the decision to imprison her “directly contradicts the authorities’ narrative of reform and women’s empowerment,” Amnesty and ALQST said.

“Manahel’s conviction and 11-year sentence is an appalling and cruel injustice,” said Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International’s Campaigner on Saudi Arabia. “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.”

Following her arrest, al-Otaibi was subjected “to physical and psychological abuse” in the Malaz Prison in Riyadh, the groups said. She told her family in April that she was being held in solitary confinement and had a broken leg as a result of physical abuse, Amnesty and ALQST said. CNN is unable to independently these claims.

CNN has reached out to the Saudi government for comment on the accusations.

In its letter to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the kingdom’s mission to Geneva said that “no person is held in detention in Saudi Arabia for exercising their rights and freedoms,” and that “state institutions have a legal obligation to ensure that all individuals are treated fairly irrespective of their religion, race, sex or nationality.”

While Saudi authorities have removed some of the restrictions on women under the male guardianship system, “many discriminatory features remain in place,” the watchdogs said.

“The long-awaited 2022 Personal Status Law, which was supposed to be a major reform, in fact serves to codify rather than abolish many restrictive elements of the system, including matters of marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance,” Amnesty and ALQST said.

Al-Otaibi “ironically” believed in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pledge for reforms, “yet she was arrested on 16 November 2022 for exercising exactly these freedoms,” Amnesty and ALQST said.

Al-Otaibi’s sentencing comes “amid an intensified crackdown on free speech in Saudi Arabia, including online expression,” the groups said. Over the last two years, Saudi courts have “handed down lengthy prison on dozens of individuals for their expression on social media, including many women,” they said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/02/middleeast/saudi-womens-rights-activist-sentenced-intl/index.html

Mynd44 Lalasticlala

If terrorism is what I am seeing in these pictures then what will they call what girls in America are doing even some of our girls here?

You might be so surprised that the thing they classified as terrorism is the last picture there

ShoeGetSize:


Human rights groups are calling for the release of a Saudi woman, who they say has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for ing women’s rights and for the way she dressed.

Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old fitness instructor and women’s rights activist, was sentenced during a “secret hearing” before the kingdom’s Specialized Criminal Court on January 9, 2024, Amnesty International and the London-based Saudi rights organization ALQST said in a t statement Tuesday.







However, the decision to imprison al-Otaibi only surfaced weeks later, after the Saudi government replied to a request by United Nations Special Rapporteurs for information about the case, the watchdogs say.

Al-Otaibi “stands accused of terrorist offences and was arrested in accordance with the law under a legally valid warrant,” Saudi Arabia’s mission to Geneva said in a letter in January, in response to the UN request.

Amnesty and ALQST allege Al-Otaibi’s charges are related “solely to her choice of clothing and expression of her views online, including calling on social media for an end to Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system, publishing videos of herself wearing ‘indecent clothes,’ and ‘going to the shops without wearing an abaya’.”

Her sister, Fawzia al-Otaibi, faces similar charges but was able to flee Saudi Arabia after she was summoned for questioning in 2022, they said.

Saudi Arabia’s authorities “must immediately and unconditionally” release Manahel al-Otaibi, as the decision to imprison her “directly contradicts the authorities’ narrative of reform and women’s empowerment,” Amnesty and ALQST said.

“Manahel’s conviction and 11-year sentence is an appalling and cruel injustice,” said Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International’s Campaigner on Saudi Arabia. “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.”

Following her arrest, al-Otaibi was subjected “to physical and psychological abuse” in the Malaz Prison in Riyadh, the groups said. She told her family in April that she was being held in solitary confinement and had a broken leg as a result of physical abuse, Amnesty and ALQST said. CNN is unable to independently these claims.

CNN has reached out to the Saudi government for comment on the accusations.

In its letter to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the kingdom’s mission to Geneva said that “no person is held in detention in Saudi Arabia for exercising their rights and freedoms,” and that “state institutions have a legal obligation to ensure that all individuals are treated fairly irrespective of their religion, race, sex or nationality.”

While Saudi authorities have removed some of the restrictions on women under the male guardianship system, “many discriminatory features remain in place,” the watchdogs said.

“The long-awaited 2022 Personal Status Law, which was supposed to be a major reform, in fact serves to codify rather than abolish many restrictive elements of the system, including matters of marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance,” Amnesty and ALQST said.

Al-Otaibi “ironically” believed in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pledge for reforms, “yet she was arrested on 16 November 2022 for exercising exactly these freedoms,” Amnesty and ALQST said.

Al-Otaibi’s sentencing comes “amid an intensified crackdown on free speech in Saudi Arabia, including online expression,” the groups said. Over the last two years, Saudi courts have “handed down lengthy prison on dozens of individuals for their expression on social media, including many women,” they said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/02/middleeast/saudi-womens-rights-activist-sentenced-intl/index.html

Mynd44 Lalasticlala

She prefers indecency and prostitution to holiness
Because of this vanity
They should release her and send her to USA where she can be going naked
Regret is free

Cajal:

She prefers indecency and prostitution to holiness
Because of this vanity
They should release her and send her to USA where she can be going naked
Regret is free

What part of her unclothedness did you see in the picture?

It is like some of you terrorists have eyes that uncloths a woman who is not on hijab?

Where is the indecency and prostitution? Or is it not the case that stupidity and lack of self control is deeply ingrained in the mind of the average believer of that religion to the extent that a woman has to be wrapped from head to toe in black cloth before you h0rny he-goats will regard her as decent?

Cajal:

She prefers indecency and prostitution to holiness
Because of this vanity
They should release her and send her to USA where she can be going naked
Regret is free

Brendaniel:


What part of her unclothedness did you see in the picture?

It is like some of you terrorists have eyes that uncloths a woman who is not on hijab?

Cajal:

She prefers indecency and prostitution to holiness
Because of this vanity
They should release her and send her to USA where she can be going naked
Regret is free

Looks like you're seeing another picture in your religious mind.

This is the kind of news some fools here like to read.

It seems as if people are into this Islam because of fear of manhunt.

she will always fail against Saudi Arabian strict laws...

For God's sake, give it a rest.

Brendaniel:


What part of her unclothedness did you see in the picture?

It is like some of you terrorists have eyes that uncloths a woman who is not on hijab?

🤣🤣

Islamabad

This people sha

Islam doesn't teach self discipline or ability.

That's why mooslim men start sweating like ileya ram the moment they lay eyes on any woman like this one who is just casually dressed. There's nothing provocative about the young lady's outfit.They're just projecting their lust and lack of discipline on her. I just hope they don't rape her in prison because rape of female prisoners is allowed under Sharia law in some cases.

She's a fitness instructor. Do they expect her to drape herself from head to toe in black clothes? Will such attire be pragmatic for her profession?

I don’t know what to say

Muslims are bunch of fake pretenders. They are the set of people Jesus 🙏 Christ described as a cup beautiful outside but inside stinking with rotten dead Bodies.

F,uck Saudi Arabia! Go out and fight for justice

Muslim... Bunch of hypocrite

Fkmodhi:
This is the kind of news some fools here like to read.

Aren’t you one of the readers

Those who ed the lady are Christians because their religion preaches indecency, sodomize, cannibalism, gay, prostitution, etc and they are looking for a way that Islam will follow their evil and wrong way, no, Islam will never do that. If you don't like the judgement you can continue to protest for the girl from your countries

If you continue to shout from here till kingdom come, Islam will never allow indecency, and Islamic law will never change.

Hmm. But there's nothing indecent in those clothes I'm seeing her wearing. She was simply sentenced for not wearing hijab according to the nation's law for women. Not for indecent dressing per day.

Oga, you fit japa now now, if you wan japa. E no cost millions. We are helping people to japa with little or no money.

Good. If she wants to be stupid, let her relocate to the US where her madness will be tolerated.