generalspeaking

Thursday, March 04, 2021

Saudi Bloggers Inivite the Vengeance of the Powerful MbS ... AsylumAbroad? There is no Escape

Omar Abdulaziz Washington Post/Getty Images

"[The Canadian authorities -- RCMP] received some information regarding my situation that I might be a potential target."
"MbS and his group or – I don’t know – his team, they want to harm me. They want to do something, but I don’t know whether it’s assassination, kidnapping, I don’t know – but something not OK for sure."
"They [RCMP] asked me, ‘What do you think about it?’ I said, ‘I’m happy'."
"I feel that I’m doing something. You know, if you’re not doing anything that bothers MbS, that means you’re not working very well."
"I don’t want to tell you that I’m scared. I’m not, honestly. But you have to take some precautions to be ready."
"[Saudis at one time commented freely about Saudi Arabia on Twitter]; That all changed with the rise of MbS. Saudi Twitter gradually morphed into a propaganda platform, with the government deploying trolls and pressuring influencers to amplify its messages. More than 30 influencers told me that the Saudi government blackmailed them with material obtained by hacking their phones. They were given two options: Tweet propaganda or have your private content, including pictures, released on Twitter."
Omar Abdulaziz, Saudi blogger, activist, self-exiled in Canada

"[The Official Opposition in Parliament want to see the governing Liberals create a] robust plan to counter foreign influence operations on Canadian soil."
"The government's response to Canadians facing intimidation and harassment by foreign agents is wholly inadequate."
Michael Chong, Conservative foreign affairs critic

"It is completely unacceptable and we will never tolerate foreign actors threatening Canada's national security or the safety of our citizens and residents."
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair

"Now that the U.S. has clearly signalled that it will not fundamentally change the relationship with Saudi Arabia, it becomes much more difficult and costly for American allies in the west to change their relationship with Saudi Arabia."
Thomas Juneau, professor, faculty of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa

https://media.globalcitizen.org/e6/6c/e66ce9f6-73de-46fd-af52-58d441900d7f/saudi-arabia-women-dark-general.jpg

YouTuber Omar Abdulaziz, now a Montrealer, has been under pressure by agents of Saudi Arabia trying to persuade him to return to the Kingdom. Once he returns, he well knows, he will be subject to additional pressure to surrender his opposition to the ruling House of Saud, and to become part of the Kingdom's stable of electronic propagandists under the imprimatur of Crowns Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Alternately, he could very well and more likely suffer the fate that awaited Raif Badawi, another blogger and activist who has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for the past eight years.

Ensaf Haidar, Raif Badawi's wife has been actively engaged for the period her husband has been incarcerated, in approaching governments and human rights groups for their support in applying pressure to Saudi Arabia to release her husband. When Raif Badawi was originally taken into custody in 2012, charged with insulting Islam and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, he was also sentenced to receive 1000 lashes as additional punishment. He was subjected to an initial 50 lashes which almost killed the frail young man.

An international outcry persuaded the Saudis to settle for the 50 lashes for the time being. Raif Badawi's ten-year sentence is set to soon expire. But his wife Ensaf Haidar has become an irritating thorn in Mohammed bin Salman's side, and signs have emerged that she is set to be 'investigated' by the Saudi legal system for besmirching the reputation of the Kingdom. Underlying that threat is another, that a new charge is being leveled at Mr. Badawi which would most certainly extend his prison stay into the future.

Ensaf Haidar, wife of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, holds a poster with his photo at a rally for his freedom on Jan. 13, 2015, in Montreal. Photo by Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press/File

Like Russia and Iran, Saudi Arabia has long been known to seek out its nationals abroad who have taken to criticizing the Kingdom, to threaten or silence them. The murder and dismemberment of Saudi Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul represents the most high-profile of the Saudi intelligence group's effort to silence a critic; a hit that went sideways with a resulting gasp of horror at the extreme lengths chosen to silence a critic through a grotesquely ill-conceived 'disappearance'.

Since the 2017 palace coup when King Salman's son Mohammed persuaded his father to anoint him successor to the Saudi throne rather than his uncle, when Mohammed bin Salman then had many members of the royal family placed under house arrest, thus removing any challenges to his claim to the throne in a reorganized succession, the Kingdom has seen various types of turmoil, internal and external. MbS has proceeded slowly to loosen Saudi laws restricting the human rights of Saudi women. While at the same time arresting women who publicly agitate for their human rights.

Mohammed bin Salman, Getty Images

He also formed a coalition with other Sunni Arab states to become involved in an Iranian proxy civil war in Yemen, arming and training Houthi rebels for the greater goal of consolidating the influence and power of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a wider arc of Shi'ite influence encircling the majority Arab Sunni states. The mass arrest of senior Saudis, repression of dissidents and the disappearance of those close to dissidents sheltering abroad have all marked the Kingdom's MbS launch into notoriety.

"We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."
"While the United States remains invested in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, President [Joe] Biden has made clear that partnership must reflect U.S. values."
"To that end, we have made absolutely clear that extraterritorial threats and assaults by Saudi Arabia against activists, dissidents and journalists must end. They will not be tolerated by the United States."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Another Saudi blogger living in Montreal where he had sought asylum began to block fellow activists on social media. Other Saudi dissidents in Canada posted that Ahmed Alharby had informed them of a visit he made to the Saudi embassy in Ottawa where he had undergone interrogation. A new Twitter account appeared in mid-February under Alharby, featuring the image of Mohammed bin Salman, making ti clear that Alharby had returned to Saudi Arabia and was no longer a critic, but a stalwart fan of MbS.

Saudi women have to wear the abaya in public by law Getty Images

Saudi Saad Aljabri, formerly a high-ranking intelligence officer, linked closely to the deposed uncle of Mohammed bin Salman, has been harassed at his home in exile in Toronto, with Saudi agents trying to persuade him to return to his country of birth. Two of his adult children living in Saudi Arabia have been 'disappeared' in an apparent effort to persuade their father to return to Saudi Arabia. Aljabri has launched a lawsuit against Mohammed bin Salman in the United States charging him with dispatching a hit squad to dispose of him, but the squad was denied entry to Canada by suspicious Canada Border agents.

Reporters Without Borders has filed legal documents in Germany for an investigation to be launched into alleged crimes against humanity in the repression of journalists by Mohammed bin Salman. Clearly, he has failed to positively impress governments and various agencies around the world. "The official opening of a criminal investigation in Germany into the crimes against humanity in Saudi Arabia would be a world first", observed German executive director of Reporters Without Borders, Christian Mihr.

A cyclist passes as activists demonstrate outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy against the recent Saudi court ruling that upheld a previous verdict of ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for Saudi blogger Raif Badawi on June 11, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Labels: Canada, Harassment, Imprisonment, Murder, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Dissidents, Saudi Residents

Wednesday, March 03, 2021

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

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.

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.

Raif Badawi: Atheist Saudi blogger faces further round of lashes, supporters say | The Independent | The Independent

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.

A 2015 protest in support of Raif Badawi outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Berlin, Germany. Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Labels: Canadian Citizens, Ensaf Haidar, Human Rights, Imprisonment, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Raif Badawi

Friday, June 14, 2019

Societal Dysfunction

"Almost to a body, the [surviving] women described them [Magdalene Laundries] as 'Dickensian'."
"Everything was taken away that was a reminder of a possession of identity. [The institutions based on the notion of contagious] moral pollution."
"They're told that they are bad, they're shameful, they're sluts, that they have done something really wrong. The state has imprisoned them and the Church has imprisoned them, and their families have abandoned them."
"The language that's used to describe them is shameful -- you need to clean, you need to clean, you need to clean, you need to be penitent. You are not worthy of your old name. You may not mention your former life. This is a stripping-away, through ideology and words, that creates a stigma that becomes internalized and believed -- believed as fact."
"It broke their resistance to other more immediate and explicit forms of violence in their lives."
"The state was working with the church, and families were, too."
"[Women were seen as] solely responsible for any sexual transgression that's happening in society."
"The very system of incarceration that was supposed to reform them, became a significant factor in shaping their lifelong inequality. Those who the church and state targeted for saving were simultaneously treated as bad, dirty and unsalvageable."
Rie Croll, associate professor of social cultural studies, Memorial University, Newfoundland

Relatives of victims of the Magdalene Laundries hold a candle lit vigil in solidarity with Justice for Magdalene Survivors and their families outside Leinster House in Dublin, Ireland, on Feb. 19, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Peter Morrison

"Those poor women. They staggered on to the street [at the 1996 closure of the last Magdalene laundry in Dublin]."
"He said [Irish politician] they didn't even know how to cross a busy, modern street."
"They were so institutionalized. It was heartbreaking."

These were Catholic institutions for wayward girls and women. They were called the Magdalene Laundries, meant to provide asylum to "fallen" women; unwed mothers, former prostitutes, young girls who ran away from home.... Women and girls as young as 12 or 13 were institutionalized in these places to live out their lives as labourers, boiling and stirring, rinsing and wringing and hanging out laundry in service to wealthy, respectable members of society.

They were given the opportunity to redeem themselves by this labour, living in isolation from decent society for they were indecent by implication.

While the laundries infamously began in Ireland, they also turned up in the U.K. Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. In Canada the Sisters of the Good Shepherd operated over a dozen of these institutions for girls and women; from the Maritimes, to Ottawa, to Vancouver. These 19th Century institutions were a plague posing as a rescue mission for naughty girls and women where they would learn a respectable trade and be useful to society.

The last to remain in operation was in Toronto. The St. Mary's Training School was finally shuttered in 1973.

Few records survive. There is no data on how many Canadian women were incarcerated or how many now survive. Survivors and their families shamed into silence. In these institutions, at dawn the nuns clapped their hands to awaken the women who leaped out of bed, dropped to their knees and prayed. They were dressed in long cotton dresses and aprons. Dressing was performed under their nightgowns for no one, not even those among whom they lived, must see their naked bodies.

A Magdalene Laundry in England in the early Twentieth Century, from Frances Finnegan, Do Penance or Perish, Congrave Press, 2001.Wikimedia Common

Quietly washing, silence reigned throughout as they filed into the dining hall for their meals, and then in equal silence into the laundry workroom. Where they were to spend the day, boiling, scrubbing, rinsing, squeezing, hanging laundry to dry, then ironing it. An hour before bedtime a break would be announced when they would make rosaries for sale to the public. Their ordinary street clothing had been confiscated, hair and nails cut short. Their given names were abandoned as they were re-named, forbidden to use their own.

They might remain in the laundries on an indefinite basis, or their length of time extended at will; their sins were to have become involved in sex work, or having been pregnant out of marriage; others "defiant", "incorrigible", or "wayward", others yet "lipping off to their parents, smoking cigarettes, stuff that in those days would have been shocking", explained Rie Croll who had interviewed as many of the former inmates as she could find. One of whom had been declared "unmanageable", sentenced in 1961 to a reformatory for sneaking away from her abusive parents in preference to spending evenings with friends.

One of the interviewed had been born in a Good Shepherd Laundry in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1934, her mother a 13-year-old Indigenous girl, impregnated through gang rape. Mother and daughter worked side-by-side from the time the girl reached eight years of age until she finally managed to escape over a fence, at age 18. The institutes were used to shield society's violence and dysfunction within families where adolescent girls, victims of incest ended up; little wonder families felt no urgency in reclaiming them.

A woman stands near a poster as relatives of victims of the Magdalene Laundries hold a candle lit vigil in Dublin, Ireland, in February 2013. The Irish government apoligized for the laundries in 2013.

A woman stands near a poster as relatives of victims of the Magdalene Laundries hold a candle lit vigil in Dublin, Ireland, in February 2013. The Irish government apoligized for the laundries in 2013.

Labels: Catholic Church, Imprisonment, Magdalene Laundry