Biography:
Loujain al-Hathloul (Arabic: لجين الهذلول Lujjayn al-Hadhlūl; born 31 July 1989) is a Saudi women’s rights activist, a social media figure, and political prisoner. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia. Al-Hathloul has been arrested and released on several occasions for defying the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia and was arrested in May 2018, with several prominent women’s rights activists, on the charge of attempting to destabilize the kingdom after being effectively kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As of October 2018, her husband, Saudi stand-up comedian Fahad al-Butairi, had also been forcefully returned from Jordan to the Kingdom and was under arrest. Al-Hathloul was ranked third in the list of Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2015. In March 2019, PEN America announced that Nouf Abdulaziz, al-Hathloul, and Eman al-Nafjan would receive the 2019 PEN America/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. Al-Hathloul was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and 2020. In April 2021, she was announced as the winner of the 2020 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. She was released from prison on 10 February 2021, but lives under a travel ban.
Women’s rights activism (2014–2017)
Al-Hathloul is known both for her role in the women to drive movement and in opposing the Saudi male guardianship system. On 1 December 2014, she was arrested and detained for 73 days after an attempt to cross the border in her car from the UAE to Saudi Arabia, on charges related to defying the female driving ban in the kingdom. She has a UAE license but the Saudi police still arrested her. Al-Hathloul attempted to stand in Saudi local elections in December 2015, the first vote in Saudi Arabia to include women, but was barred. In September 2016, along with 14,000 others, al-Hathloul signed a petition to King Salman asking for the male guardianship system to be abolished. On 4 June 2017, she was arrested and detained at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. The reason for the arrest was not officially disclosed, although Amnesty International believed it was for her human rights activism, and al-Hathloul was not allowed access to a lawyer or any contact with her family.
2018–2020 detention and torture
Loujain Al-Hathloul was kidnapped from UAE in March 2018 and deported to Saudi Arabia, where she was arrested for a few days and then put under a travel ban. Al-Hathloul was detained again on the eve of 15 May 2018, along with Eman al-Nafjan, Aisha al-Mana, Aziza al-Yousef, Madeha al-Ajroush, and some men involved in campaigning for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch interpreted the purpose of their arrests as seeking to suppress and punish activists demanding an end to gender discrimination in the country.
Awards:
– 2019 PEN America/Barbey Freedom to Write Award
– Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019
– Nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and 2020
– Winner of the 2020 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize