Salma alShehab is a Saudi woman working as a professor at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. An oral hygiene specialist, medical student and mother of two, her story has resonated on social media following a ruling by the Saudi Arabian government. In this case, she was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
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The reason for the arrest was a message on Twitter supporting the release of some political prisoners as the country lives in the midst of armed conflict. The accusation was thus disruption of public order and destabilization of state security. However, the movement looked suspicious because it generally didn’t post much content with political content, aside from an isolated episode.
Salma alShehab claimed some women’s rights and this caused excitement in some philanthropic organizations
Although she did not lead a movement, she supported women in vulnerable situations. As a result, the nonprofit organization Freedom Initiative, which is responsible for defending prisoners in the Middle East, reported that the inhumane attitude was unprecedented. In terms of punishment, it was the highest of all when it came to women’s prisons, due to the motivation of ideological threat.
Keep in mind that the incident had nothing to do with the position established by the Twitter company. The material was used solely by the detainees, who kept the victim detained without the opportunity to speak directly to the judge. The work of a human rights court is hampered by the lack of access to internal information in the region, which has been experiencing moments of instability for years.