The Human Rights Watch has demanded the immediate release of a Saudi journalist who has been arrested for supporting the scrapping of a ban on the right of women to drive in the kingdom.
Tariq Al-Mubarak, a columnist for the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, was taken into custody by the Saudi Interior Ministry's Criminal Investigation Department for questioning regarding his support for the campaign and remains in detention without access to relatives or legal counsel.
"Saudi authorities are retaliating against people who want a very basic right for women, the right to get behind the wheel and drive themselves where they want to go. The authorities should end the driving ban and stop harassing people for supporting women's rights," Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement here.
Al-Mubarak has actively supported the driving campaign. On October 6, he published a column in Asharq al-Awsat entitled "The Woman in the Gulf Time for Change", criticising the driving ban, among other instances of discrimination against women.
"Officials should also stop harassing and trying to intimidate activists and women who defied the ban by driving on October 26 this year", the activicts said.
Local activists reported that more than 50 women defied the ban and drove on October 26, according to messages they received from the women and videos women uploaded on YouTube showing themselves driving.
