Nassima al-Sadah

Nassima al-Sadah (also al-Sada or al-Sasa, ; born 13 August 1974 ) is a Shia human rights writer and activist from the "restive Shi'ite-majority" She has "campaigned for civil and political rights, women's rights and the rights of the Shi'a minority" Sadah and another prominent activist, Samar Badawi, were arrested on July 30, 2018, Women were granted the right to drive in Saudi Arabia in June 2018. were arrested by Saudi authorities in a "government crackdown" on "activists, clerics and journalists", including many activists of the Saudi anti male-guardianship campaign. Between May 2018 and February 2019, "at least 15 human rights activists, including several women human rights defenders [were] detained without charge in Saudi Arabia." Amnesty International (AI) reported that Nassima al-Sada, who, , has been held in prison since July 2018 without charges or a trial, had been placed in solitary confinement in early February 2019 in al-Mabahith Prison, before being transferred to al-Ha'ir Prison in Riyadh. According to The Washington Post, a Saudi official denied that torture was condoned by the state. According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) March 7 statement reported in The New York Times, "Saudi interrogators [reportedly] tortured at least four of the women with electric shocks, and by whipping their thighs and sexually harassing and assaulting them."

Trial According to The Washington Post, the trial for ten of the women rights activists—including Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah—began on March 13, 2019.

Response Amnesty International (AI) described the crackdown as an "unprecedented level of persecution of human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia" One year following the arbitrary detention of Saudi Arabia’s leading women human rights defenders, Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Najfan, Aziza alYousef, Samar Badawi, Nassima al-Sada and all other human rights defenders detained and facing trial for their peaceful human rights work. and described the arrests of the "human rights defenders" engaged in "peaceful human rights work" as "arbitrary."

On International Women's Day March 2019, the CPJ highlighted the number of female journalists who remained in prisons around the world, listing Nassima al-Sadah specifically.

According to a March 7, 2019 article in The New York Times, in a "landmark initiative", 36 member nations of the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) rebuked Saudi Arabia "for its aggressive crackdown on free expression." It was the first time "states had ever confronted Saudi Arabia", who is a UNHRC member, over its human rights record. The UNHRC statement specifically named Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef, Nassima al-Sadah, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdelaziz, Hatoon al-Fassi, Mohammed al-Bajadi, Amal al-Harbi and Shadan al-Anezi, all of whom were arrested in the May 2018 crackdown.