Saudi Arabia Releases PhD Student Jailed for Women’s Rights Tweets

Saudi Arabia has released Salma Al-Shehab, a PhD student who was sentenced to 34 years in prison for posting tweets in support of women’s rights, according to human rights groups. The London-based ALQST Human Rights Foundation announced on Monday that Al-Shehab was freed after spending “four years in arbitrary detention due to her peaceful activism.”

ALQST called on Saudi authorities to grant Al-Shehab “full freedom, including the right to travel to complete her doctoral studies in the UK.” At the time of her arrest in January 2021, Al-Shehab was a scholarship student at Leeds University in the UK, pursuing her doctorate.

Lina Al-Hathloul, head of communications at ALQST, revealed that Al-Shehab endured a “difficult” experience during her detention, including being separated from her two young children. “Moreover, she was forced to go on a hunger strike in March 2023 for several weeks to obtain treatment in prison,” Al-Hathloul said. She added that while Al-Shehab has been released, her life under a travel ban means she still faces the “potential threat of arrest.”

Al-Shehab, a 36-year-old mother of two, was arrested while visiting her family in Saudi Arabia. Initially sentenced to six years in prison, her sentence was dramatically increased to 34 years by a Court of Appeal in August 2022. However, in September 2024, her sentence was reduced to four years, with a travel ban imposed for the same period.

A Shia Muslim from Al-Mubarraz in eastern Saudi Arabia, Al-Shehab was not a prominent activist. Her Twitter (now X) account had around 2,600 followers, and her posts primarily focused on advocating for women’s rights. Amnesty International, in a 2022 report, stated that her only “crime” was “publishing tweets in support of women’s rights.”

Al-Shehab’s case is part of a broader pattern of crackdowns on dissent in Saudi Arabia. Since 2017, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman assumed power, the kingdom has imprisoned dozens of dissidents, clerics, and activists, many of them women, under a counterterrorism law. Prominent feminist activists, including Manal Al-Otaibi and Noura Al-Qahtani, have received lengthy prison sentences of 11 and 45 years, respectively, for their social media activity.

However, recent months have seen some progress on this sensitive issue. In December, Saudi authorities released several prisoners, including Mohammed Al-Qahtani, co-founder of the now-dissolved Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association. Al-Qahtani was freed more than two years after his sentence ended in November 2022. Other releases included academic Malik Al-Ahmad and preacher Mohammed Al-Habdan, both arrested in a 2017 crackdown.

Al-Shehab’s release has been welcomed by human rights groups, but concerns remain about her limited freedom under the travel ban. Her case highlights the ongoing tension between Saudi Arabia’s efforts to modernize its image and its harsh treatment of peaceful activists. As the kingdom continues to navigate these challenges, the international community will be watching closely to see how it balances reform with human rights.