Jailed Saudi women’s rights activist wins Freedom Prize 2020

Imprisoned Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul has received the Freedom Prize 2020 against a backdrop of a widening crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman against rights campaigners and intellectuals in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

About 5,500 young people from 81 countries voted online in favor of Hathloul, and she obtained 42.2 percent of the total votes, CNN Arabic news website reported on Saturday.

Loujain’s sister, Lina, will receive the prize on her behalf during the third edition of Normandy World Peace Forum, which will be held on October 1 and 2 at the Abbaye-aux-Dames in the northwestern French city of Caen.

A trophy produced by the Lycée Napoléon of L’Aigle school and a check for 25,000 euros will be awarded to the jailed Saudi human rights campaigner during the event.

“Loujain al-Hathloul, like Greta Thunberg in 2019, was the youngest of the Freedom Prize finalists … I see that this choice is coherent: from the parades against the climate crisis of last year to the mobilizations against racism and police violence following the terrible agony of Georges Floyd in Minneapolis, the world youth are on the front line to defend the universal values, first and foremost freedom.

“That she chooses to embody these mobilizations by rewarding the commitment of young activists seems to me to participate in the same idea: the youth wants a better world, she is ready to mobilize for this, she does not want her fight to be recovered, and she wants this to be known,” the president of the jury and deputy editor-in-chief of French daily newspaper Le Monde, Emmanuel Davidenkoff, commented.

Hervé Morin, the president of the Normandy Region, also praised Hathloul for winning the award.

“Time and time again, the fight for freedom is constantly and tirelessly defended. I am delighted that our youth have chosen Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi defender of women’s rights, who is in jail for almost two years, as the winner of the Freedom Prize 2020. This young woman is an exceptional embodiment of this exemplary commitment to freedom,” Morin said.

The Freedom Prize is an initiative in partnership with the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace, and aims to raise public awareness about freedom, peace and human rights. It is open to young people, aged between 15 to 25, to designate each year a person or an organization engaged in an exemplary fight for freedom.

Earlier this month, the Prisoners of Conscience, an independent nongovernmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, announced in a post on its official Twitter page that Saudi prison officials had not allowed Loujain al-Hathloul to contact her family for the past three weeks, and also banned her from visits for more than two months.

Loujain was among more than a dozen activists arrested in May 2018, and held on suspicion of harming Saudi Arabia’s interests and offering support to hostile elements abroad.

At the time, international rights groups reported the detention of prominent female campaigners among the detainees, who had previously campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system.

Some were later released, but activists have said several of the women were held in solitary confinement for months and faced torture and sexual harassment.

Saudi Arabia overturned the world’s only ban on female motorists on June 24, 2018. The lifting of the prohibition followed a sweeping crackdown on prominent women’s rights activists, who had staunchly advocated for the right to drive.

Saudi authorities have arrested dozens of activists, bloggers, intellectuals and others perceived as political opponents ever since bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of international condemnations of the crackdown.