While people were protesting in the Arab streets against the war in Lebanon, Wajiha al-Huwaydar was marching alone on Friday August 4, 2006, on the bridge connecting Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, waving to travelers with a board that said, “give woman her rights.” 

Saudi authorities arrested al-Huwaydar for a short period of time, and then released her after promising that she would not repeat this act.  

Wajiha al-Huwaydar is a Saudi activist, known for her courageous positions and writings that defend Saudi and Arab women’s rights, in addition to her criticism of radical Islam.

On International Women’s Day on March 8, 2005, she stated, “today, March 8, is a day that does not have any meaning for the Arab governments and many of their citizens. International Women’s Day comes and goes every year, and the Arabian woman in this ruinous region remains marginalized because of male views that regard her as Awrah— having to be covered in public— and divisive, sinful, and lacking in mind and faith.” (Aman.org, Sep 2006) 

She added, “Despite the fact that all the Arab regimes became members at the United Nations and ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued in 1948, which explicitly calls for the equality of all citizens in duties and rights, the woman in our male-dominated states is still regarded as a man’s possession.” 

Because of her bold writings, al-Huwaydar has faced criticism and threats from Islamists. In June 2004, she published an article on “Modern Discussion” revealing some of the threats she received via internet, for example —“Our hand reaches hypocrites like you …remember this is a warning.” (pcwesr.org, 7/6/2004) 

On August 23, 2003, the Saudi ministry of the interior issued a decree banning her from writing in the Saudi newspaper, Alwatan. In response, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a report in May 2006 which addressed the situation of the press in Saudi Arabia. The report states the following: “It has been almost three years since Wajiha al-Huwaydar last wrote in a Saudi newspaper. She wrote opinion articles for many years, but in 2003, the Saudi newspapers stopped publishing her articles without any stated reason.” During an interview at Aramco`s sprawling complex in Dahran, in the country’s oil-rich eastern province, al-Huwaydar said: “I learned about this incident during my vacation since one of my friends informed me that I was banned from writing.” She confirmed that the editors of Alwatan and Arab News notified her that they received a fax from the ministry of information asking them to stop publishing her articles. 

The report states that al-Huwaydar addressed sensitive issues in Saudi society such as women’s rights, gender discrimination, and social illnesses, which caused great discontent in the conservative community. 

The ban on her writing took place after she wrote an article in May 2003 describing a Saudi boy who took pictures of scars on his body in order to sue his father for beating him. The father was never punished. 

The Ministry of Information proposed removing the writing ban if al-Huwaydar agreed to travel abroad and speak about the progress of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. Al-Huwaydar refused the offer, knowing that the Saudi government would control what she said. 

Despite the challenges she has faced, al-Huwaydar continues to defend women’s rights and criticize extremism through articles published in different newspapers abroad and online, such as Alwatan, Arab News, Elaf, Modern Discussion, and the Progressive Center for Women Equalization Studies and Research. 

In addition to winning the prize of the Universal Association of Writers in the Netherlands in 2004, she was chosen by Georgetown University in March 2006 to represent Saudi Arabia in the Global Leadership Conference, which is organized every year.