#Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman,suspected to have ordered murder of journalist #JamalKashoggi, launched unprecedented crackdown vs women’s rights activists in May. Those activists have been tortured & one has tried suicide 3 times google.com/amp/s/www.wash… h/t @SherifaZuhur
Some of the activists (none of whom have been formally charged or given access to lawyers) have been subjected to psychological or physical abuse while in custody, including electric shocks, sexual harassment, sleep deprivation and beatings. #Saudi 
“In one reported instance, one of the activists was made to hang from the ceiling, and according to another testimony, one of the detained women was reportedly subjected to sexual harassment, by interrogators wearing face masks.” amnesty.org/en/latest/news… #Saudi
Prison authorities have warned detained activists not to disclose any accounts of torture or prison procedures to family members. Those detained include these women & men whose “crime” was advocating to end the guardianship system - the foundation of patriarchy in #Saudi Arabia
Several other activists were detained in the ensuing months and remain in detention without charge, in this unprecedented crackdown against feminists and women’s rights activists. #Saudi
For years I have been calling #Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women gender apartheid. And ever since news of #JamalKhashoggi’s murder, I have said over and over that any critique of #Saudi regime that doesn’t include its treatment of women is incomplete
That shameful global silence was made worse by US media bootkicking of the murderous Mohamed Bin Salman - called a “revolutionary” by Thomas Friedman and an “emancipator of women” by CBS 60 Minutes Norah O’Donnell. And that shameful sycophancy has enabled the torture of feminists
Just as I say Trump is the brazen fruition of previous US administrations, so too is Mohamed Bin Salman the brazen fruition of decades of #Saudi state-sanctioned, religiously-justified, and socially enforced misogyny.The Saudi regime has long worshipped a misogynist god (small g)
Gender apartheid: When a #Saudi woman tried to escape a forced marriage she was detained at Manila airport at request of Saudi officials until her uncles came, beat her and dragged her onto plane home with her mouth taped shut and her arms and legs bound google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…
I have been writing about #Saudi gender apartheid for 16yrs and this is a thread of my columns because I am so fucking enraged and heartsick at the torture of feminists - several of whom I know personally
I followed @Saudiwoman here for years. When I used to teach, I assigned her blog to my students and they would interview her by Skype for end of semester projects. I was at @azizayousef’s home in Virginia last year to read from my book at a Gulf women’s book club. They are heroes
Just 3 of the feminists detained since May by the “emancipator of women” Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman. @azizayousef, 60, retired professor, mother of 5 & grandmother of 8; @Saudiwoman, linguistics professor and mother of four, including a toddler; @loujainhathloul, 28.
These feminists and the women’s rights activists that Mohamed Bin Salman is detaining and subjecting to electric shocks are the true revolutionaries, not a murderous crown prince google.com/amp/s/www.nyti… #Saudi
The biggest threat detained feminists pose to Mohamed Bin Salman and the #Saudi regime is that their brave work has always been about more than abolishing the driving ban. It is about abolishing guardianship system,the embodiment of patriarchy that renders women perpetual minors.
When this decade began, there was no political revolution in #Saudi Arabia like those in Tunisia, Egypt, etc But a social revolution has begun. Its vanguard is not a crown prince who claims to be emancipator of women. The true leaders are the feminists he has detained.
I am enraged, heartsick and truly gutted over this awful news about the they’re of detained feminists. The #Saudi regime will be remembered as one of the most brutal and corrupt in the world. These courageous and determined feminists and women’s rights will be hailed as heroes.
That brutal and corrupt #Saudi regime was defended today by the most powerful man in the world - an authoritarian and corrupt US president with dictator envy. Remember that as you imagine the odds and the powers those feminist heroes are fighting.
السعودية: أنباء عن تعرض نساء محتجزات للتعذيب hrw.org/ar/news/2018/1…
“The reports allege that torture by #Saudi authorities included administering electric shocks, whipping the women on their thighs, and forcible hugging and kissing”
