Saudi
blogger and activist Raif Badawi started criticizing his country's regime more
than six years ago. Since then, his family has been threatened and fled to
Canada and his lawyer has been arrested.
Deutsche Welle, 30 Jan 2015
The
flogging of Raif Badawi has been postponed for the third time. On Friday, the
public learned that the blogger would not receive the next 50 lashes of his
cruel 1,000-lash punishment. That doesn't change the fact that he is in bad
physical shape. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, told journalists in Ottawa, Canada,
that her husband suffered from hypertension and another round of beating could
weaken him significantly. "I am very concerned about him," Haidar
said.
The whole
world has followed Badawi's case over the last few weeks. Public protest has
picked up steam since he was first publicly flogged on January 9 in Jiddah,
Saudi Arabia, after being found guilty of insulting Islam and breaking Saudi
technology laws with his website "Free Saudi Liberals." He was
sentenced to 1,000 lashes, 10 years in prison and fined 1 million riyals
($266,000) in May 2014. But Badawi's struggle has been going on for much
longer.
Daring
online activism
Badawi was
born in Al Khobar in eastern Saudi Arabia on January 13, 1984. He and his older
sister, Samar, were educated to seventh-grade level. Activism in the face of
the strict Islamic regime seems to run in the family: Samar has campaigned for
women's suffrage and women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia. In 2012, she was
awarded the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award.
 |
| Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, is fighting for her husband's release |
With the
"Free Saudi Liberals" website, Raif Badawi took his criticism of the
regime online. He created the website in 2008 as a forum for liberals to
discuss Saudi Arabia's strict Wahhabi leadership.
Ensaf
Haidar, whom Badawi married in 2002, told Pen Canada, a group that promotes
freedom of expression, that he believed in liberalism as an "intellectual
project" that aspired to "represent Saudi liberals on the ground, and
fight injustice wherever it exists."
Badawi
didn't hold back his views about how unjust the system that ruled his country
really was. In addition to writing about Valentine's Day, the celebration of
which is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, he wrote and published sarcastic articles
about the Commission on the Promotion of Virtue, criticized senior political
figures and said that the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh
had become "a den for terrorists."
Charged
with abandoning Islam
It didn't
take long for Saudi officials to intervene. In March 2008, authorities arrested
Badawi and questioned him about his website. Two months later, in May, he was
charged with "setting up an electronic site that insults Islam."
According to Human Rights Watch, he then left the country. Later in 2008,
prosecutors, however, dropped the charges against him and Badawi returned to
Saudi Arabia.
He was
banned from leaving the country in 2009 and had his bank accounts frozen by the
government. He was then arrested June 17, 2012 and appeared before a court in
December 2012 on charges of ridiculing Islamic religious figures on his
website.
He was also
referred to a higher court for the charge of apostasy, a crime punishable by
death in Saudi Arabia. One "proof" for Badawi's apostasy seems to
have been that he liked a Facebook page for Arabic Christians. According to
Human Rights Watch, a Saudi cleric also accused him of saying "that
Muslims, Jews, Christians, and atheists are all equal," which was also
seen as a sign of apostasy.
International
support
The
apostasy charges were eventually dropped, but medical experts say the 1,000
lashes Badawi now has to endure are basically a death sentence dragged out over
20 weeks. The case has also affected Badawi's family. His wife fled Saudi
Arabia in 2013 after receiving death threats. She said she feared for her safety
and that of their children, Terad, Najwa and Miriam. They obtained political
asylum in Quebec, Canada.
 |
| Protests in support of the blogger have taken place all over the world, including this one in London |
With
Badawi's health deteriorating, protesters all over the world are demanding the
blogger be released and exonerated. Campaigns on social media and petitions by
organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters
without Borders are helping him to keep up hope, his wife said.
But the
final decision on his fate lies with the Saudi regime, whose flaws Raif Badawi
never hesitated to point out.
Related Articles:
Saudi Arabia postpones flogging of blogger Badawi for third week
Saudi blogger Raif Badawi’s case referred to supreme court, says his wife
Saudi postpones blogger lashing on medical grounds
 |
Protesters
call for the release of Raif Badawi outside the Saudi embassy
in The Hague,
Netherlands. Photograph: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Rex
|
Related Articles:
Saudi Arabia postpones flogging of blogger Badawi for third week
Saudi blogger Raif Badawi’s case referred to supreme court, says his wife
Saudi postpones blogger lashing on medical grounds
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