![\"Saudi](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e82cc739fdf1eecb5f840f886c1a75a08ca27d81\/0_78_2333_1400\/master\/2333.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=3602167c2de7dec88d17e4f01b030b02\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAl-Otaibi, a certified fitness instructor and artist who frequently promoted female empowerment on her social media accounts, was arrested in November 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among other charges, Otaibi was accused by Saudi authorities of using a hashtag \u2013 translated to #societyisready \u2013 to call for an end to male guardianship rules. Her sister, Fouz al-Otaibi was also accused of not wearing decent clothing but was able to flee\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u00a0before her arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another sister, Maryam, is a known women\u2019s rights advocate who was detained, held, and\u00a0eventually released in 2017\u00a0for protesting guardianship rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amnesty International and ALQST, a rights group, called on Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release al-Otaibi and said her imprisonment \u201cdirectly contradicts authorities\u2019 narrative of reform and women\u2019s empowerment\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this sentence the Saudi authorities have exposed the hollowness of their much-touted women\u2019s rights reforms in recent years and demonstrated their chilling commitment to silencing peaceful dissent,\u201d said Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International\u2019s campaigner on Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amnesty and ALQST pointed to an irony in Al-Otaibi\u2019s case: the activist had been a vocal supporter of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman\u2019s \u201cradical changes\u201d, including the alleged relaxation of dress code for women, and said in a 2019 interview that she felt free to express her views and wear what she likes thanks to the prince\u2019s declarations. She was arrested a few years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Otaibi\u2019s social media accounts on X and Snapchat portrayed her as a young and progressive woman who loves fitness, art, yoga, and travel, while also promoting women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rights groups say al-Otaibi has been subjected to severe abuse, beginning with her forcible disappearance for five months from November 2023 to April 2024. Once she was back in contact with her family, she said she was held in solitary confinement and had broken a leg after being subjected to physical abuse. Saudi officials denied the claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her case follows a slew of similar cases in which Saudi women, in particular, have been subjected to draconian sentences for using social media accounts to express themselves. They include women such as Salma al-Shehab, sentenced to 27 years, Fatima al-Shawarbi, sentenced to 30 years, Sukaynah al-Aithan, sentenced to 40 years, and Nourah al-Qahtani, sentenced to 45 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A young women\u2019s rights activist in Saudi Arabia was secretly sentenced to 11 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court after\u00a0being arrested\u00a0for \u201cher choice of clothing and support for women\u2019s rights\u201d. Saudi officials confirmed in a statement to the United Nations high commissioner for human rights that Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced on 9 January for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4791,11261,7603,8657,7167,6975,7960,9194,7823,10507,9387,10684,5455,12210,2264,9997,10840,10954,11493,10342,12085,8306,11495,6431,8160,1364,11307,5349,11089,9151,7609,6584,7999,5273,5320,594,10353,10265,5140],"class_list":["post-42510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-abuse","tag-accused","tag-activist","tag-amnesty","tag-amnesty-international","tag-arrest","tag-case","tag-charges","tag-code","tag-court","tag-detained","tag-dress-code","tag-family","tag-female","tag-government","tag-guilty","tag-human-rights","tag-international","tag-interview","tag-law","tag-nations","tag-prison","tag-reforms","tag-release","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sentence","tag-social-media","tag-terror","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist","tag-travel","tag-united-nations","tag-woman","tag-women","tag-who","tag-x","tag-yoga","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42512,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42510\/revisions\/42512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}