The pictures of Pompeo grinning, smiling, and laughing with the crown prince—as if a journalist wasn't just murdered—are remarkable. Not only is it bad policy; it's downright embarrassing. It makes Pompeo look like an unserious pushover. It's really indefensible on any grounds pic.twitter.com/qwgs9LK9VH

— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) October 16, 2018

Carol Morello at the Post:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Saudi Arabia to highlight U.S. concern over the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the missing journalist whose name Pompeo did not utter in public after arriving in the kingdom.

Pompeo’s talks with three officials, including the king and crown prince, were “direct and frank” about the need to investigate what happened to Khashoggi, said State Department spokeswoman Heather

Saudi Arabia is simply furious that Canada’s Foreign Minister had the audacity to say SA shouldn’t arrest human rights activists.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, said the kingdom was still “considering additional measures” against Canada. He did not elaborate.

“There is nothing to mediate. A mistake has been made and a mistake should be corrected,” he told a news conference in Riyadh.

Several countries have expressed support for Saudi Arabia, including Egypt and Russia, which both told Ottawa it was unacceptable to lecture the kingdom on human rights.

Yes, that’s unacceptable all right. Violations of human rights are just fine, in fact they’re glorious, but lecturing states about human rights, that is … Read the rest

Trump’s BFF Saudi Arabia is not behaving well.

The UN has expressed concern over the continuing and “apparently arbitrary” crackdown on Saudi human rights activists after two more prominent female campaigners were arrested in the kingdom.

Samar Badawi, an internationally recognised activist, and Nassima al-Sadah, a co-founding member of Al-Adalah Center for Human Rights, were detained earlier this week.

At least 15 prominent activists have been held as part of a government campaign that began in the run-up to the much publicised lifting of the ban on women driving. Many other cases are thought to remain unreported.

That’s interesting – so the “run-up” to the removal of one violation of women’s rights consisted of trashing other women’s rights. How … Read the rest

Oh no, it’s the end of the world, a woman went out in public wearing clothes.

The authorities in Saudi Arabia are investigating a young woman who posted a video of herself wearing a miniskirt and crop-top in public.

The woman, a model called “Khulood”, shared the clip of her walking around a historic fort in Ushayqir.

لو كانت اجنبية كان تغزلوا بجمال خصرها وفتنتة عيناها .. بس لانها سعودية يطلبوا محاكمتها ! #مطلوب_محاكمة_مودل_خلود
pic.twitter.com/ttYqynySN2

— فاطمة العيسى (@50BM_) July 16, 2017

No wonder the authorities are investigating.

On Monday, the Okaz newspaper reported that officials in Ushayqir had called on the provincial governor and police to take action against the woman.

The religious police, the Committee for the

Some people in Saudi Arabia think a woman who goes outside with naked hair should be killed. Killed.

A woman in Saudi Arabia pictured without a hijab is facing calls for her execution.

Some social media users reacted with outrage after the emergence of the image taken in capital city Riyadh, with one man calling for the state to “kill her and throw her corpse to the dogs”.

Not for murder or torture or abuse or otherwise harming others – but for not wearing a black tent that conceals everything but her eyes.

An unnamed student who reposted the image told the website that Ms Al Shehri had announced she was going out to breakfast without either a hijab

The New York Times put out a call on Twitter for Saudi women to talk about their lives. They got a huge response.

Most of the responses focused on frustration over guardianship rules that force women to get permission from a male relative — a husband, father, brother or even son — to do things like attend college, travel abroad, marry the partner of their choice or seek medical attention. Some women talked about the pride they had in their culture and expressed great distrust of outsiders. But many of them shared a deep desire for change and echoed Juju19’s hopelessness.

A Life Restricted

“I got into an accident once in a taxi, and the ambulance refused to take me

Via #TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship on Twitter –

… Read the rest

Fascist theocratic Saudi Arabia is having good success in making over Kosovo in its own hideous image. They’ve funded the building of scores of Wahhabi mosques since Kosovo was rescued from Serbian oppression in the 90s.

Since then — much of that time under the watch of American officials — Saudi money and influence have transformed this once-tolerant Muslim society at the hem of Europe into a font of Islamic extremism and a pipeline for jihadists.

Kosovo now finds itself, like the rest of Europe, fending off the threat of radical Islam. Over the last two years, the police have identified 314 Kosovars — including two suicide bombers, 44 women and 28 children — who have gone abroad to

News from Saudi Arabia, where “morality police” tell girls to cover their faces and beat them up if they don’t obey fast enough.

Manama: One of the two girls who had a bitter standoff with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, in Riyadh said they had been the victims of “blatant injustice.”

A video clip of a woman being beaten up in front of the Nakheel Mall in Riyadh sparked outrage in Saudi Arabia this week amid contrasting reports about what really took place.

The article has the video but it’s just a note from YouTube:

This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying.

No, … Read the rest

Ashraf Fayadh’s death sentence has been overturned, but he still faces prison and torture. This is what the Saudis do – they say oh all right, if you’re going to get that upset, we won’t kill the liberal guy, the Sri Lankan woman who had sex, the guy who wrote poetry, we’ll just lock them up for years and years and maybe torture them too.

A Saudi court has overturned the death sentence of a Palestinian poet accused of renouncing Islam, imposing an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes instead. He must also repent through an announcement in official media.

Saudi Arabia, where the state religion is absolutely mandatory, on pain of torture, prison and death. Saudi Arabia, that … Read the rest

Seen on Twitter:

Many public places in Saudi Arabia are closed to women. Some have segregated “family” areas, and some don’t; women by themselves are not welcome.

We understand why, of course. We’re not stupid. It’s because if they’re out by themselves they’re sure to fuck the first male they see, and disgrace the men of their family.… Read the rest

The Independent reports:

A government minister has urged Saudi Arabia to do a “better job” of trumpeting its human rights successes during an official visit to the country, less than a month after it carried out the mass execution of 47 people.

Tobias Ellwood, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, made the comments on Monday as he and other British delegates addressed Saudi Arabia’s National Society for Human Rights in the capital Riyadh, The Independent understands.

Its what? Trumpeting its what? Trumpeting its what successes? Trumping its human rights what?

Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any fucking human rights “successes.” Saudi Arabia doesn’t believe in human rights, because it thinks human beings are slaves before Allah and Mohammed. … Read the rest

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir talked to Channel 4 News’ Jonathan Rugman, who wondered why the kingdom had to execute quite so many people.

Al-Jubeir responded: “We have a fundamental difference, in your country, you do not execute people, we respect it. In our country, the death penalty is part of our laws and you have to respect this as it is the law.”

No we don’t. Nobody does. Nobody has to “respect” other countries’ laws just because they’re laws. (They have to obey them while in those countries, but that’s a different thing.) Shit laws don’t merit respect.

People don’t have to respect US laws on capital punishment either, by the way. I don’t respect them, lots of … Read the rest