Founders Weekly: British student sentenced to 34 years

A PhD student at Leeds University in the United Kingdom has received the longest known sentence given to a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia.

In 2021,  Salma al-Shebab was sentenced to six years’ jail for having a Twitter account and calling for freedom for women. An appeals court has now increased that sentence by more than five times.

The student and mother of two was first detained in January 2021 while on holiday in Saudi Arabia, just days before she planned to return to the UK.

Saudi Arabia has some of the most discriminatory laws in the world against women. 

+ A male relative is still required to give permission for a woman to marry, start certain types of business, leave prison or leave a domestic abuse shelter. 

+ Women faced limits on the amount of time spent with men to whom they are not related.

+ Public transport, parks, and beaches across most of the country have strict gender-based rules. 

+ A male guardian’s approval is still required in order for a woman to seek a legal abortion and the only on health or therapeutic grounds.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, women who gathered in Kabul chanting  “bread, work and freedom” have been attacked by the Taliban, who have also limited women’s rights including keeping female high school students out of school. 

Some, however, are receiving a  secret education in hidden classrooms.

While we still have a way to go on women’s issues in Australia such as equal pay, equal representation and eradicating violence against women, we sometimes need to do more in considering our sisters fighting for basic rights in other countries.

I was honoured this week to be part of a panel with activist and businesswoman  Wendy McCarthy AO who has been at the forefront of women’s rights for most of her lifetime and awarding winning journalist, businesswoman and leader  Catherine Fox at CommBank’s Women In Focus conference to empower female-led businesses.

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Main photograph: ESOR