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. 

Salma al-Shehab was interviewed by Al Thaqafia TV at the 2014 Riyadh International Book Fair

Inmate NN7687's Presence Certain to Offend Prisoner Honour Code

"Flanked by armed sheriff's deputies, he disappeared through an arched doorway, bound for a holding cell -- Cosby's first stop in a journey that will take him to a state prison where he'll be confined to a tiny cell that could have fit into the corner of a room in any of his mansions."
Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post

"It's basically his own space. He's a high-profile inmate ... and obviously, safety is the paramount issue inside a prison."
"He still has to do it. [Stand outside his cell for a regulated head count.] It's part of the prison ritual."
"He didn't have Jell-O [for his dessert]. The word 'Jell-O' may appear on the menu, but it is not a Jell-O brand [which brand Cosby touted on TV] product."
Amy Worden, press secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

"They're going to have to put him in protective custody."
"The problem is the nature of the crime. Rapists are frowned upon in prison."
O.J. Simpson

How utterly deranged, that a man who for many decades reached the pinnacle of public acclaim and respect for his immaculate personification as a trusted mentor to young black males, exhibiting good humour, impeccable social manners, empathy for those in trouble, and a masterful control of acting's accolades as a sterling example of the most respectable traits in human kindness, restraint, and strict adherence to society's contract with law and justice, would turn out to be among one of society's most reviled sexual predators.

His persona as the exemplary father-figure, the guide of the young and impressionable toward a life of service to others, tolerance for those who err, and a willingness to point them gently in the right direction was a carefully guarded facade, one which crumbled when the rising clamour of those whom he molested finally gained traction beyond their initial dismissal by authorities who simply couldn't conceive that this master thespian could possibly be the monster who stalked women, drugged them and raped them.

The long-awaited trial and the testimony aired therein was sufficiently convincing that one woman's tribulation and memory brought justice to the estimated sixty women who had suffered in silence. The celebrated master of comedy is no more. What is left is an elderly man whom his wife continues to support and who insists he is too ill to be incarcerated. A man who slept in a cot bolted to the floor of a cell, a man who is temporarily being kept incommunicado, who must undergo an evaluation before he is released from his current state of solitary sensory deprivation.

At the State Correctional Institution Phoenix, Bill Cosby is the lone occupant in a unit where he is in partial isolation, taking his meals without company, walking its yard on his own, standing to be counted by a guard to ensure that no prisoners are missing, though he is the lone prisoner in that unit; protocol and routine that he will become familiar with, barring some changes in the near future. Simply put, prison administrators are wrestling how they can accommodate the presence of an infamous sex offender for three to ten years.

To rise eventually from the ashes of his disgrace to embrace his legendary persona once again as the emblematic Phoenix of antiquity?

A tour group enters block D in the west section of the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Collegeville, Pa., June 1, 2018. Jacqueline Larma/AP, FILE

While there are roughly 3,600 inmates in this new prison -- or will be once it is at capacity -- how one singular inmate's needs will be catered to remains an as-yet unanswerable question. While the potential for "violence" to be wrought against this man by other prisoners contemptful of the acts he committed are for now held at bay, the man himself must contend with the debilitating psychological impact of loneliness and boredom.

Following this normally jovial man's sentencing he was driven to SCI Phoenix, through a rainstorm; even nature recognizing the solemn, dark occasion of a man fallen from grace; the institution a 164-acre compound of cellblocks surrounded by a mile and a half of razor wire and electronic fencing. Could anything be more foreign to this man's experience, more alienating, more deserving than his transition from admired social celebrity figure to scorned incarcerate?

Prison guards guided him into the prison's central building where the obligatory pose for his mug shot took place and he was outfitted in a prison uniform and boots and given his distinguishing number as Inmate NN7687. From someone to nothing in one fell swoop. In his empty corner of the prison, he eats, sleeps and takes his recreation.

A housing unit is pictured in the west section of the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Collegeville, Pa., June 1, 2018.   Jacqueline Larma/AP, FIL

Once he has undergone the formality of completing a standard battery of psychological and medical tests designed for new inmates and sex offenders -- a ten-day process -- he will be permitted family visits, he will be able to procure a TV and tablet for his cell. And he will be enabled to take advantage of available classes or work positions for inmates.

Word from the prison is that Cosby is adapting to his new life and appears to be in "good spirits". "We are taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure Mr. Cosby’s safety and general welfare in our institution. The long-term goal is for him to be placed in the general population to receive the programming required during his incarceration", explained corrections secretary John Wetzel.

Wicked Stepmother Redux

"We're punishing him for being mentally ill. That's what's happening here. Mark is not a violent person, has never hurt anybody. He's been his own worst enemy in jail by escaping and committing some crimes."

John Middleton, lawyer for Mark DeFriest

"Mark was a prized piece of prey. There was a lot of admiration for what he was able to do. [Prison officials] used to have a class specifically about Mark and all the different ways he could f--k with correction staff, and now they give that to incoming staff. They were learning from him because he could see behind all the machinations within the system."

Gabriel London, director, documentary "The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest."

 

"Mark has never been a threat to anyone on the outside. He has Asperger’s Syndrome traits, but is emotional and caring in his own way. He is an intelligent and highly skilled worker capable of making a living on the outside. With help and support from the system and all of us on the outside, he can and will become a productive citizen once again."

Bonnie DeFriest, Mark DeFriest's wife

This is a story about a square peg that refused to be pounded into a round hole. He was diagnosed with autism, and there are some among his defenders who claim him to be a genius-savant. And he has been a very long time in prison. His original offence, somehow considered a crime sinister enough to land him at age 19 in prison, was to commit an unauthorized offence against his step-mother's wishes.

In his father's will his mechanic's tools were left to his son. And the mechanically-inclined young man who had been taught his father's skills saw no reason why he should not take immediate possession of them, despite that they had been set aside to be given to him at a later, probated date. His impetuosity earned him his stepmother's bitter decision to accuse him of robbery and to call police in response to a 'crime' she was eager to report to authorities.

For his unforgivable crime he was sentenced, in 1980, to four years in prison, and that was a lifetime ago. The young man had other ideas than to spend his days in a prison cell, and he repeatedly made attempts to escape. He is now 55 years old, and still in prison, after 36 years. Each additional offence he acquired in the prison system added additional years to his ever-expanding sentence. He earned the wrath of prison officials for his capacity to attempt new escapes, time after time.

Each of his attempted escapes from prison was different, and each was the product of an ingenious mind, from slipping a narcotic into the coffee of guards to producing working copies of prison keys out of paper simply by viewing the keys and from memory reproducing replicas that could do what the real ones did. Once, in a Florida prison, he unlocked jail cells of inmates and freed everyone to roam about at will until they were recaptured and returned to prison.

In another attempt to escape, DeFriest coolly pulled out one of his own teeth so he could arrange to be seen by a prison dentist. After the dental work had been concluded, he asked prison guards for permission to use the bathroom. When he emerged from the restroom, he then attempted to pull off another of his spectacular escapes by intimidating the guards with two zip guns he had made himself from copper pipes -- and fled, hot-wiring a car before being captured once again. 

His casual approach to authority reflected at the very least his confidence in himself and his independent mind. That earned him the rancor of guards who would then beat him. Of the years spent in prison, 27 of them were in the unforgivable psychological brutality of isolation. Because his frequent attempts to remove himself from the prison sentence without recourse to the legal system continued to frustrate prison officials, his incarceration had been stretched forward to the year 2085.

His dilemma has been brought to public attention as a true miscarriage of justice, in imprisoning a young man for a virtual lifetime for having committed a questionable offence which his stepmother took revenge upon him for far in excess of what anyone could imagine might occur in a free society. When the public became interested, his wife began a petition, asking for support to free her husband from prison.

And it certainly did not hurt his cause when a documentary was made about his life and the absurd lengths to which the prison system was permitted to ruin it, effectively taking up where his stepmother left off. He will now, finally be freed in several months' time. For justice to be seen to have been done, an apology is due him, and financial recompense as a complement to the apology, representing lost earnings, although there is no compensation for having been robbed of his youth and his liberty.