Ruminations: The Twisted Social Conservativatism of Saudi Arabia

[Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani is accused of] disrupting the cohesion of society [and] destabilizing the social fabric."
"[Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani] offended the public order through the information network."
Saudi Criminal Court

"This seems like the beginning of a new wave of sentences and convictions by new judges who have been placed in the specialized criminal court."
"Nothing in her court documents pertains to any violence or criminal activity." "The charges against her are really broad. They are using the counter-terrorism law and the anti-cybercrime law... that can criminalize any posting that is even remotely critical of the government."
"The Saudi government is sending a strong signal to the West that it does not care about human rights."
"But this is only half the story because even the crown prince would not allow such vindictive and excessive sentences if he felt that these actions would be met by meaningful censure by the United States and other Western governments. Clearly, they are not."
Abdullah Alaoudh, regional director, Democracy for the Arab World Now

"It's very hard to ignore the fact that we are seeing these sentences as [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] has received increased legitimacy in the international realm."
Allison McManus, Freedom Initiative, Washington

Saudi Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool, File)

Puzzlingly, at a time when the Saudi Crown Prince has pretty much taken the helm of government from his ailing father, and has led a slow but gradual relaxation of government rules for religiously acceptable behaviour for Saudi women there has been a renewal of harsh crack-downs hitting outspoken women of the very government that now allows women to drive a vehicle and decide on their own to travel abroad unescorted by or having to secure permission from a male relative.

The shocking news that two women have been handed down effective lifetime-long incarceration as a penalty for criticizing their government has gone far in setting back world opinion on the purported social modernization of the Saudi Kingdom. A Saudi doctoral student, 34-year-old Salma al-Shehab, who had returned to Saudi Arabia from her studies at the United Kingdom's Leeds University on a visit, was handed down a 34-year prison sentence in January 2021.

She had been found guilty of "providing succour to those seeking to disrupt public order", and "publishing false and tendentious rumours." Before leaving Britain for her Saudi Arabia holiday, mother of two, Salma al-Shehab had injudiciously called for reforms and the release of prominent activists and intellectuals imprisoned under a crackdown on dissent overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Now, her 34-year prison sentence has been outdistanced by the 45-year prison term meted out to Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani, who has no apparent history of activism, a woman from one of the largest Saudi tribes. A special criminal court sentenced al-Qahtani under the Kingdom's broad counterterrorism and cyber-crime laws.

There is actually nothing unusual in an Arab country classifying government critics as 'terrorists'. Infamously this is precisely what Syrian President Bashar al-Assad did when he launched his endless civil war against Syrian Sunnis.

It has not been revealed what al-Qahtani had posted, much less where her hearing had been held after being taken into custody on July 4, 2021. She had launched an appeal against her earlier conviction. The court normally handling political and national security cases delivered her sentence as though in severe punishment of her appeal of the original sentence.

Under the civilizing veneer of social progress into the 21st century, led by a new, 'progressive' leader, the Wahhabist tinged Kingdom is in no great hurry to effect too many freedoms for its citizenry, but in any event the ruling elites have no patience for Saudis, particularly women, nurturing a false belief that they have the right to be critical of their government; something like the divine right of kings.