Wajeha al-Huwaider

Wajeha al-Huwaider (born 1962 or 1963) is a Saudi activist and writer, who played a key role in the anti male-guardianship

Childhood and education Al-Huwaider was raised in al-Ahsa in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Over the course of her tenure, she covered progressive policy topics like strengthening women's rights and improving the treatment of Saudi Arabia's Shia Muslim minority.

Following her written declaration that Saudi citizens were increasingly turning to the US for policy solutions because of a growing disillusion with the Saudi state, the government banned her from domestic publishing in 2003. Following this, Al-Huwaider began to work for a number of pro free-speech Pan-Arab media sites where she became internationally renowned for writing about women's rights. However, the domain was shut down in 2015. Al-Huwaider wrote "Saudi women are weak, no matter how high their status, even the 'pampered' ones among them, because they have no law to protect them from attack by anyone. The oppression of women and the effacement of their selfhood is a flaw affecting most homes in Saudi Arabia." Al-Huwaider also campaigned against the mahram or guardianship laws that give male kin control over women's daily lives, including permission to travel outside the home. In the video she posted of herself driving in a rural area, she requested the universal right for women to drive. She stated, "I wish Prince Naif, Minister of Interior affairs, gives us the right to drive."

In 2009 she deliberately tried on three separate occasions to cross the border with Bahrain without male guardian approval. She was refused departure all three times. She encouraged other women to try the same experiment in protest against the male guardianship system in general. "Before that, I knew that I'm a human being. However, in the United States I felt it, because I was treated as one. I learned life means nothing without freedom. Then I decided to become a real women's rights activist, in order to free women in my country and to make them feel alive."

In 2011 al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Oyouni were charged with kidnapping for attempting to help Nathalie Morin to escape her abusive husband and go to the Canadian embassy in Riyadh. The charges were dropped due to the influence of a prominent politician in the region, but a year later al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Oyouni were charged with the lesser crime of takhbib (inciting a separation between a husband and wife).

Accolades and recognition The editor of the reform-minded Aafaq compared al-Huwaidar to Rosa Parks.

In 2004, Wajeha Al-Huwaider received the "Oxfam Novib/PEN Free Expression award" in Hague, presented to journalists in the international community who have faced prosecution for their work.

As a result of her campaign work, Al-Huwaider was featured in CSPAN's annual "Women in the World Summit" in 2011 to discuss the gender disparities present in Saudi Arabia.