Who is Manahel al-Otaibi, the Saudi blogger sentenced to 11 years in prison?

Saudi Arabia's election as chair of the 69th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in March had already caused heated debate on the condition. They should hardly go extinct. On April 30, the NGOs Amnesty International and ALQST denounced the sentence to 11 years in prison during a “secret hearing” of the Saudi human rights activist Manahel al-Otaibi because of “his choice of clothing and expression of one's opinions online.

Although the judgment was handed down on January 9, it was publicly revealed a few weeks later in a communication from the kingdom to the UN special rapporteurs handling the case, Amnesty International and ALQST said in a statement .

Behind the name Manahel al-Otaibi hides a 29-year-old woman, a fitness instructor by trade. Very active on social networks like X and Snapchat, she shares her life there between her travels, her fitness sessions, but also her political convictions. She regularly uses her platforms to denounce the condition of women in Saudi Arabia. She has, for example, launched a hashtag to abolish the male guardianship system, still in force in the kingdom, the hashtag “societyisready” (translated expression, Editor's note ). She also regularly posts photos of herself in Western clothing, without an abaya, a long traditional loose dress.

She also showed her support for the Saudi government's reforms, as part of the Vision 2030 plan in favor of women's rights, such as the lifting of the driving ban in 2017 or the relaxation of dress in 2019, reports the Guardian. In an interview with Deutsche Welle in 2019, she said she felt free to express her opinions.

A few years later, on November 16, 2022, she was arrested. The reason: his posts on social networks, which are disturbing. She is charged with “violating the Law on Combating Cybercrime, due to her tweets in favor of women's rights and the publication on Snapchat of photos of herself without an abaya in a shopping center,” reports Amnesty International in a press release. His case was sent by the Riyadh Criminal Court to the Special Criminal Court, created to try terrorism cases. She is being held in al Malaz prison. According to Amnesty International, she is subject to “enforced disappearance” between November 2023 and April 2024. During this period, the family has no news from Otaibi.

Fouz, Manahel al-Otaibi's older sister, was also accused of dressing insufficiently decently. She also fled Saudi Arabia in 2022 to escape arrest. She risks prison if she returns to the Kingdom.

His other sister, Maryam al-Otaibi, was also arrested in 2017 in Riyadh after wanting to flee her father's home for "an independent life", reports the BBC. After 104 days of detention, she was released. She also publicly denounced the system of male guardianship with the