Manal al-Sharif

Women's rights campaigns Al-Sharif has campaigned for women's rights in Saudi Arabia for many years. In 1990, dozens of women in Riyadh drove their cars in protest, were imprisoned for one day, had their passports confiscated, and some of them lost their jobs. Khobar with al-Huwaider filming. When King Abdullah appointed women to the advisory Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia#Shura Council for the first time in January 2013, al-Sharif criticized the reform as too small, noting that the council was still not an elected body and could not pass legislation. In February, she worked to bring international attention to the case of five-year-old Lama al-Ghamdi, whose father Fayhan al-Ghamdi fatally raped, beat, and burned her; he served four months in jail and paid 1,000,000 riyals (roughly US$267,000) in blood money. On 7 October 2013, it was announced that al-Ghamdi had been sentenced to 8 years in prison, plus 800 lashes.

In January 2019, al-Sharif closed her Twitter account. She stated that while Twitter had "once saved [her] life" and that online social network services had enabled Saudis to carry out uncensored discussion and communication for several years, especially around 2011, Saudi authorities found ways to use Twitter that she considered too authoritarian for her to continue using it.

Personal life Al-Sharif has two sons. Her first son lives in Saudi Arabia with his grandmother, and her second son is in Australia with al-Sharif. , the two sons had never met in person, having only met on video calls.

She first married in Saudi Arabia and had a son in 2005. On 25 January, The Guardian confirmed that she was alive, and that the crash victim was an "unnamed member of a desert community" who was not involved in the female driving campaign.

Al-Sharif had another son in 2014 from her second marriage.

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