2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests
The protests in Saudi Arabia were part of the Arab Spring that started with the 2011 Tunisian revolution. Protests started with a self-immolation in Samtah[36] and Jeddah street protests in late January 2011.[37][38] Protests against anti-Shia discrimination followed in February and early March in Qatif, Hofuf, al-Awamiyah, and Riyadh.[39] A Facebook organiser of a planned 11 March "Day of Rage",[40][41] Faisal Ahmed Abdul-Ahad,[25] was allegedly killed by Saudi security forces on 2 March,[25][26][27] with several hundred people protesting in Qatif, Hofuf and al-Amawiyah on the day itself.[42] Khaled al-Johani demonstrated alone in Riyadh,[42] was interviewed by BBC Arabic Television, was detained in ʽUlaysha Prison,[43][44] and became known online as "the only brave man in Saudi Arabia".[43] Many protests over human rights took place in April 2011 in front of government ministry buildings in Riyadh, Ta'if and Tabuk[45][46] and in January 2012 in Riyadh.[47] In 2011, Nimr al-Nimr encouraged his supporters in nonviolent resistance.[48]
2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests
11 March 2011 – 24 December 2012
(1 year, 11 months and 3 days)
- Political and economic changes
- Women's suffrage[2]
- Women's right to drive[3]
- Release of political prisoners
- Deportation of Peninsula Shield Force from Bahrain
- Equality for Shias
- Constitution and independent legislative assembly in Eastern Province[14]
- Release of Nimr al-Nimr[15]
- Saudi government victory
- Occasional protests since 2013
- US$130,000,000,000 to benefit citizens[16]
- Municipal elections held on 29 September 2011[17][18]
- Women to participate in 2015 municipal elections and be nominated to Consultative Assembly[19]
- Partial shift from imprisonment without trial to imprisonment with trial[20]
- King Khalid University president fired on 1 July 2012[21]
Anti-government protests demanding release of prisoners held without charge or trial continued in April and May 2011 in Qatif, al-Awamiyah and Hofuf in the Eastern Province,[39][29][49] and extended to calls for the Peninsula Shield Force to be withdrawn from Bahrain[11][50][51] and for the Eastern Province to have a constitution and a legislature.[14] Four protesters were shot dead by Saudi authorities in late November in Qatif region protests and funerals,[52] two on 2012 January 13[53][54] and two on 9 and 10 February 2012.[55][56][57] In the early 2012 demonstrations, protesters chanted slogans against the House of Saud and Minister of Interior, Nayef,[58] calling Nayef a "terrorist", "criminal" and "butcher"[59] and throwing an effigy of Nayef at tanks.[59] Police described two of the fatal shootings as responses to unidentified gunmen who had shot first.[56][60] Eastern Province protests intensified after Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was wounded in the leg and arrested by police on 8 July.[61] Four men were killed in a protest immediately following the arrest,[62][63] with several funerals and protests following,[64] including calls for the downfall of the House of Saud.[65][66] While detained, al-Nimr was tortured and started a hunger strike, he was later executed in the 2016 mass execution.[67] Protest organisers insisted on the use of nonviolent resistance[68] and called for all Shia and Sunni detainees to be freed.[69] A protester and a soldier were fatally shot in Qatif during a 3–4 August protest,[70] leading to more protests.[71]
Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners[72] to be released spread beyond the Eastern Province to protests at the Ministry of Interior in Riyadh on 20 March[73] and in Riyadh and Buraidah in December 2011,[52] and in July and August 2012 near al-Ha'ir Prison.[74][75][76]
Women organised a Facebook women's suffrage campaign called "Baladi", stating that Saudi Arabian law gives women electoral rights.[77] In April 2011, women in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam tried to register as electors for the 29 September municipal elections despite officials stating that women could not participate.[77][2] In May and June, Manal al-Sharif and other women organised a women's right-to-drive campaign, with the main action to take place on 17 June.[3][78] In late September, Shaima Jastania was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving in Jeddah, shortly after King Abdullah announced women's participation in the 2015 municipal elections and eligibility as Consultative Assembly members; King Abdullah overturned the sentence.[79][80] Al-Sharif and Samar Badawi filed lawsuits against Saudi authorities in the Grievances Board, a non-Sharia court,[81] because of the rejection of their driving licence applications.[82] Women university students protested in King Khalid University (KKU) in Abha in March 2012[83] and were attacked by security forces, leading to one death.[84] Other university protests followed in Taibah University in Medina[85] and Tabuk University in March and April.[86][87] KKU students called for the university president to be dismissed. He was replaced on 1 July 2012.[21]
Response[edit]
Domestic[edit]
On 10 February 2011, a Reuters report claimed that 10 intellectuals, human rights activists and lawyers came together to create the Umma Islamic Party – considered to be the first political party in Saudi Arabia since the 1990s – to demand the end of absolute monarchy in the country.[143] On 18 February however, all ten members of the party were arrested and ordered to withdraw demands for political reform in exchange for their release.[144]
On 23 February, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, after returning to the country following three months spent abroad for health treatment, announced a series of benefits for citizens amounting to $10.7 billion. These include funding to offset high inflation and to aid young unemployed people and Saudi citizens studying abroad, as well as writing off some loans. State employees' incomes were increased by 15 percent and new housing loans subsidies were introduced. No political reforms were announced as part of the package, though the 86-year-old monarch did pardon some prisoners indicted in financial crimes.[145]
On 6 March, the Saudi Arabian Council of Senior Scholars, headed by Grand Mufti Abd al-'Aziz al-Ashaikh, issued a fatwā (religious opinion) opposing petitions and demonstrations, declaring, "Therefore the council hereby reaffirms that only the reform and [counsel] that has its legitimacy is that which may bring welfare and avert the evil, whereas it is illegal to issue statements and take signatures for the purposes of intimidation and inciting the strife. ... reform should not be by demonstrations and other means and methods that give rise to unrest and divide the community. ... The Council affirms prohibition of the demonstrations in this country and [that] the legal method which realizes the welfare without causing destruction rests on the mutual advice."[146][147] The fatwa included a "severe threat against internal dissent",[8] stating, "[The Prophet] again said: 'He who wanted separate affairs of this nation who are unified, you should kill him with sword whoever he is' (narrated by Muslim)." In late March, Abd al-'Aziz al-Ashaikh called for a million copies of the fatwa to be printed and distributed.[147]
On 22–23 March 2011, officials of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural affairs announced that men-only municipal elections to elect half the members of local councils would be held in September 2011.[17][18] Associated Press described the election announcement as having "coincided with rumblings of dissent in Saudi Arabia stemming from the wave of political unrest in the Arab world".[148]