Samar bint Muhammad Badawi ( ar, سمر بدوي; born 28 June 1981) is a Saudi Arabian

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activist. She and her father filed court cases against each other. Badawi's father accused her of disobedience under the Saudi Arabian male guardianship system and she charged her father with ''adhl''—"making it hard or impossible for a person, especially a woman, to have what she wants, or what's rightfully hers; e.g, her right to marry" according to Islamic jurisprudence—for refusing to allow her to marry. After Badawi missed several trial dates relating to the charge, an arrest warrant was issued for her, and Badawi was imprisoned on 4 April 2010. In July 2010, Jeddah General Court ruled in Samar Badawi's favor, and she was released on 25 October 2010, and her guardianship was transferred to an uncle. There had been a local and international support campaign for her release. The Saudi NGO

Human Rights First Society The Human Rights First Society (''HRFS'', ar, جمعية حقوق الإنسان أولا) is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation which seeks to promote human rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is one of the few independent gro ...

described Badawi's imprisonment as "outrageous illegal detention". Badawi filed a Grievances Board lawsuit against the Ministry of Municipal and Rural affairs for the rejection of her registration for the 2011 municipal elections. She participated in the 2011–2012 women driving campaign by driving regularly since June 2011 and helping women drivers with police and court procedures. In November 2011, she and Manal al-Sharif filed charges in the Grievances Board against the Saudi Arabian General Directorate of Traffic for rejecting their applications for drivers' licences. On 8 March 2012, Badawi was given an award by the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

for her contributions to women's rights. In 2018, she was arrested by the Saudi authorities again.Saudi Arabia expels Canada’s ambassador, freezes trade with Ottawa
5 August 2018 Canada's request for her immediate release sparked a major diplomatic dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Disobedience and ''adhl'' court cases

Samar Badawi was allegedly physically abused by her father for 15 years. Her mother died prior to October 2010. In March 2008, she escaped to a

women's shelter A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to ...

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

, the Protection Home. As her male guardian under the male guardianship system, Badawi's father filed a charge of disobedience against her. The Saudi Public Prosecutions and Investigation Bureau dropped the charge. Badawi's father filed another disobedience charge against her in 2009. Badawi missed some court appearances. In June, Judge Abdullah al-'Uthaim issued a warrant for her arrest. In July, she moved from the women's shelter to her brother's home. A non-judicial investigation by the Protection Home stated that "Badawi's father had beaten and verbally abused her, used drugs, had 14 wives, had exhausted his financial resources, had repeatedly changed jobs, and became friendly with a 'bad group of people.'" Badawi wished to marry. Her father refused permission. Badawi then filed an '' adhl'' charge against her father for the refusal to allow her marriage, requesting to remove her father's status as her guardian. According to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

, Badawi filed the ''adhl'' charge against her father after her father had filed the disobedience charge against her. According to ''

Arab News ''Arab News'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats. At least as o ...

'', Badawi's father filed the disobedience charge as a "counter-suit after" Badawi had filed the ''adhl'' charge. When she went to court for the ''adhl'' case on 4 April 2010, she was arrested on the basis of the warrant that had been issued for the disobedience charge. Badawi was held in Briman Prison in Jeddah. On 18 July 2010,

Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud ( ar, خالد بن فيصل ال سعود ''Khālid bin Fayṣal Āl Suʿūd''; born 24 February 1940) is a Saudi Arabian politician, artist, and poet who is the governor of Makkah Province, in office from 2007 to 2013 ...

, governor of

Makkah Province The Mecca Province ( ar, مِنْطَقَة مَكَّة '), also known as the Mecca Region, is one of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia. It is the third-largest province by area at and the most populous with a population of 8,557,766 as of 2017 ...

, proposed creating a committee to "reconcile father and daughter by making him promise not to use violence against her, to allow her to marry, and not to file spurious lawsuits hathe could not prove." Also in July 2010, Badawi's father was found guilty in the ''adhl'' case by the Jeddah General Court. In mid-October 2010, the disobedience case against Badawi remained open, and Badawi's father filed an appeal against the result of the ''adhl'' case. On 18 October 2010, the

Supreme Judicial Council of Saudi Arabia Supreme Council of Magistracy of Saudi Arabia ( ar, المجلس الأعلى للقضاء) is a seven-eleven member council appointed by the King in the legal system of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It supervises the lower courts of Saudi Arabia &n ...

told Badawi's lawyer Abu al-Khair that it would investigate the legality of both cases. The

, a Saudi Arabian human rights NGO, described Badawi's imprisonment as "outrageous illegal detention". Saudi Arabian and international

activists campaigned for Badawi to be released. Badawi gave a petition to the

National Society for Human Rights The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is a Saudi Arabian human rights organisation closely associated with and funded by the Saudi government. It was established on 10 March 2004 ; On 25 October 2010, Badawi was released from prison on the orders of Governor Khalid bin Faisal. An uncle on her father's side became her new male guardian. In September 2014, Badawi attended a discussion session of the

United Nations Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

in Geneva, in which she talked about the situation of Human Rights advocates in Saudi Arabia.

Women's suffrage

Badawi also took legal action in relation to

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. She filed a lawsuit in the Grievances Board, a non-

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

court, against the Ministry of Municipal and Rural affairs, because of the refusal of voter registration centres to register her for the September 2011 Saudi Arabian municipal elections, claiming that there was no law banning women as voters or candidates and that the refusal was illegal. She cited Articles 3 and 24 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which refer to general and election-specific anti-discrimination, respectively. Badawi requested the Grievances Board to suspend the electoral procedures pending the Board's decision and to order the electoral authorities to register her as a voter and as eligible to be a candidate. On 27 April 2011, the Grievances Board accepted to hear her case at a later date. The Board's final decision was that Badawi's case was "premature". According to the

, Badawi was the first person to file a lawsuit for women's suffrage in Saudi Arabia. Badawi also applied to the Municipal Elections Appeal Committee to reverse the refusal of her registration. Her application was refused on the grounds that appeals against registration refusals must take place within three days of the refusal.

2011–2012 women driving campaign

In 2011 and 2012, Badawi participated in the 2011–2012 women driving campaign. Since the main campaign event in June 2011, Badawi drove in Jeddah "every two or three days". She helped other women drivers in their contacts with police and courts. Badawi stated that there is no legal basis for court trials of women on the charge of driving. She described the women's rights situation stating, "We are marginalized in very basic rights. They think that by giving us some political rights, we will be pleased and shut up." On 4 February, following Manal al-Sharif's November 2011 filing of charges in the Eastern Province Grievances Board against the General Directorate of Traffic for the rejection of her application for a driver's licences, Badawi filed similar charges for the rejection of her own application for a driving licence. Badawi was asked by the Grievance Board of the Ministry of Interior to "follow-up in a week".

International award

On 8 March 2012, Samar Badawi was awarded the 2012 International Women of Courage Award by the

for her filing of the ''adhl'' and voting rights lawsuits, which were seen by the Department of State as pioneering, and for her encouragement of and inspiration to other women.

2014 travel ban

On 16 September 2014, Badawi attended a discussion session of the

in Geneva, on behalf of the organization Americans for Democracy and

human rights in Bahrain Bahrains record on human rights has been described by Human Rights Watch as "dismal", and having "deteriorated sharply in the latter half of 2010". Their subsequent report in 2020 noted that the human rights situation in the country had not impro ...

(ADHRB) and the Bahrain Institute of Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

. Her presentation centered on the situation of human rights advocates in Saudi Arabia, and the detention of her husband activist

Waleed Abulkhair Waleed Sami Abulkhair ( ar, وليد أبوالخير) is a Saudi Arabian lawyer and human rights activist, and the head of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA) organization. He is the first activist to be prosecuted by the Terro ...

. On 18 September 2014, while at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Badawi met with the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad. On 20 September 2014, Badawi flew to the US, where she met US Senators and secretaries of several human rights organizations to discuss the issue of her husband Waleed Abulkhair and other detainees. At that time, Badawi said she received a direct threat from the secretary of the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia that she must stop her human rights activities otherwise action would be taken against her. She subsequently returned to Saudi Arabia without incident, other than local authorities taking her passport. On 2 December 2014, Badawi went to

King Abdulaziz International Airport King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) ( ar, مطار الملك عبدالعزيز الدولي) is an international airport serving Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, also known as "Jeddah International Airport"( ar, مطار جدة الدولي). T ...

, to leave Saudi Arabia for a flight to Brussels, Belgium, to participate in the 16th European Union (EU) NGOs Forum on Human Rights. Passport Office staff said the Ministry of Interior issued a travel ban and would not allow her to travel abroad. The EU contacted the Saudi authorities to seek clarification of the reasons for this ban.

January 2016 arrest

In a press release 12 January 2016,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

announced that Samar Badawi had been arrested and taken with her 2-year-old daughter Joud to a police station in

where she was interrogated. Four hours later, Badawi was transferred to

Dhahban Central Prison Dhahban Central Prison ( ar, سجن المباحث العامة بذهبان), also known as Dhahban Prison, is a maximum security prison facility located near Dahaban, Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. It was built in 2015 as part of a renovation of the ...

, the same prison where her brother, Saudi dissident

Raif Badawi Raif bin Muhammad Badawi ( ar, رائف بن محمد بدوي, also transcribed Raef bin Mohammed Badawi; born 13 January 1984) is a Saudi writer, dissident and activist, as well as the creator of the website ''Free Saudi Liberals''. Badawi wa ...

is held. On 13 January, ''The Guardian'' quoted "activists" as saying Samar Badawi had been "freed on bail after being arrested and held briefly" at the Dhahban prison. She was said to be home with her daughter, but had been ordered to report to the police in Jeddah early 14 January for further interrogation. Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program called Badawi's arrest, "...yet another alarming setback human rights in Saudi Arabia emonstratingthe extreme lengths to which the authorities are prepared to go in their relentless campaign to harass and intimidate human rights defenders into silent submission." Ensaf Haidar, wife of Samar's brother and President of th
Raif Badawi Foundation
confirmed reports of Samar Badawi's arrest via Twitter.

Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 19 ...

, an American nonprofit educational organization, called for her immediate release, and asked the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

to "bring to bear what diplomatic power they have to press Saudi Arabia to release Samar." A spokesperson for the Saudi Interior Ministry, Maj. Gen. Mansour Turki, denied claims that Badawi had been arrested.

July 2018 arrest

According to

(HRW), Samar Badawi, along with

Nassima al-Sadah Nassima al-Sadah (also ''al-Sada'' or ''al-Sasa'', ar, نسيمة السادة; born 13 August 1974) is a Shia human rights writer and activist from the " restive Shi'ite-majority" eastern province Qatif, Saudi Arabia. She has "campaigned for civi ...

, were arrested by Saudi authorities on 30 July. She was held in the Dhahban Central Prison. Following criticism and calls for Badawi's release on the part of Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Chrystia Freeland Christina Alexandra Freeland (born August 2, 1968) is a Canadian politician serving as the tenth and current deputy prime minister of Canada since 2019 and the minister of finance since 2020. A member of the Liberal Party, Freeland represen ...

, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador, and froze trade with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Release

On 27 June 2021, Badawi was released from prison after serving her sentence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badawi, Samar 1981 births Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Saudi Arabia Living people People of the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests Saudi Arabian women's rights activists Saudi Arabian dissidents Saudi Arabian women Saudi Arabian prisoners and detainees Women human rights activists Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award