Raif Badawi, Human Rights Activist, Political Prisoner, Saudi Arabia
"They add insult to injury to a long list of oppressive and aggressive acts against him.""It is difficult to discern, given the opacity of the Saudi Arabian system, what practical impacts [these investigations] will have. But it's certainly very negative.""[At the very least], it's an attempt to silence the family."Brandon Silver, director of policies and projects, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights"There are a number of distinctive Canadian connections given that his wife and children are Canadian citizens.""We feel that his case is now a kind of cause celebre with respect to so many different human rights themes."Irwin Cotler, former Member of Parliament, international counsel, Raif Badawi
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| Members of Parliament are calling on the immigration minister to grant Canadian citizenship to the jailed Saudi blogger. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press) |
The world was aghast when a slight young man of Saudi Arabian descent was arrested in Saudi Arabia and charged with insulting Islam, back in 2012. He had expressed enlightened, liberal sentiments on his blog. And that sent Saudi thought-minders into an incoherent rage of spite. Raif Badawi has occupied a prison cell since June of 2012 in Saudi Arabia. Part of his punishment aside from prison was to be lashed a thousand times.
He did undergo the grotesque punishment of receiving 50 lashes before collapsing. International reaction was so condemning that Saudi authorities tucked him away in prison -- the lashes to continue at some future date. He had committed the unspeakable offence of 'insulting Islam through electronic channels'.
His wife, Ensaf Haidar, lives in Canada. She is a proud Canadian citizen, her home in Quebec City. She has traveled extensively over the years, campaigning, speaking in public, drawing attention to her husband's incarceration in an effort to muster world opinion to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia to free her husband. Their three children are growing; eight years' absence makes an incredible difference in children's lives, yearning for a father they haven't seen much less hugged and been present in their lives during their formative years.
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| Ensaf Haidar, Raif Badawi's wife, is only allowed two telephone conversations per week with her husband. (Sylvia Thomson/CBC) |
Several years ago, Raif Badawi's sister, Samar Badawi was also arrested, charged and imprisoned for illegal activities. She was protesting the condition of women living in a strictly-observant Islamic society known for its Wahhabi orthodoxy where women are treated as not very intelligent chattels. Raif Badawi's lawyer, Waleed Abulkhair has also been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for his unmitigated gall in supporting his client.
It seems that the vigour and determination of Ensaf Haidar in alerting the world community of the barbarity of shutting away a young husband and father of young children for years on end, as a cruel and unusual human rights abuse by a repressive tyranny is tarnishing the reputation of the kingdom. Of course, in reality, it is the reputation that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has itself earned for its repressive, discriminatory laws and reactive oppression to its internal critics.
The Saudi regime has seen fit now to launch a new investigation against Mr. Badawi, for allegedly harming the country's reputation. That, of course, extends to the activities of his wife, Ensaf Haidar who sees her activism as the only way she may be able to move the Saudi authorities to eventually releasing her husband. His prison term in fact, is close to elapsing, a full decade of incarceration, when he should be released. The additional charge is a threat.
Saudi Arabian authorities appear as well to be 'investigating' Ensaf Haidar. Her activities displease them mightily, smearing the Saudi Kingdom as a vengeful, repressive oppressor of free thought. The move is meant to place pressure on her not to continue her dedicated measures to alert the international community to her husband's and her sister-in-law's plight; in so much as saying that should she continue, her husband's sentence will be extended under the new 'charges'.
As it happens, the Saudi authorities are harassing a Canadian citizen. They are also, in effect, holding another Canadian citizen in prison unjustifiably. In January of 2021 the House of Commons voted unanimously to confer Canadian citizenship on the long-suffering Raif Badawi.
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Labels: Canadian Citizens, Ensaf Haidar, Human Rights, Imprisonment, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Raif Badawi
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, March 03, 2021
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