25-Year-Old Saudi Woman Blogger and Social Critic Dies "Unexpectedly"

Cinnamon Stillwell's Blog ^ | 5/20/8 | Cinnamon Stillwell

[SmithL]

There's definitely something fishy about 25-year-old, Saudi, female, dissident blogger Hadeel Alhodaif's untimely death.

Via the Arab News, we learn that Alhodaif "unexpectedly" fell into a coma and 25-days later, simply "passed away." But considering her legacy of activism, both within the blogosphere and without, and the fact that she insisted on blogging under her real name, it's more likely she was targeted for death by Saudi authorities. That she was a proponent of women's rights in this most backward of nations (and regions) is even more reason the enemies of progress would want her out of the way.

The article elaborates on her impressive, but all-too-brief, career:

Alhodaif, who maintained “Heaven’s Steps” (http://hdeel.ws/blog), often challenged other Saudi women to join her in stepping out of the shadows of anonymity and devote their writing to issues of social importance.

“I wish that Saudi women bloggers would step forward in their writing instead of simply writing their personal diaries,” she told Arab News in an interview last year. She said that blogging offered a unique opportunity in Saudi Arabia to create a “new free media” to face off against the entrenched establishment newspapers and television channels and give the public what they really wanted to know. In some cases she would appear in these media outlets, such as AlJazeera and Saudi Channel One.

Alhodaif was invited last year to Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University to discuss the role that Saudi blogs play in promoting the freedom of expression. Later that year she gave a lecture at the women’s section of the Riyadh Literary Club calling on women to start their own blogs to help influence public policy and opinion.

“I would like to educate Saudi women about the importance...

[SmithL]

Update (5/20): Speaking of supporting Muslim dissidents, the New York Times reports on blogger and housewife Jane Novak's one-woman crusade to save the life of persecuted Yemeni journalist Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani. Al-Khaiwani is in prison and may face the death penalty merely for reporting on the Houthi rebellion in Northern Yemen. Novak's blog, Armies of Liberation, focuses on Yemeni affairs and her petition on behalf of al-Khaiwani can be signed here.

[SmithL]

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[Huntress]

Somehow I suspect that Miss Alhodaif’s coma was induced by asphyxiation or perhaps a blunt object.

[fso301]

How many stones were required to put her into the coma?

[LtKerst]

Hadeel Alhodaif’s untimely death.
Murdered by her own People.......?

[Telepathic Intruder]

and 25-days later, simply "passed away

It only took Terri Schiavo 13 days to "simply pass away", from natural causes since food and water are considered artificial life support. I seem to recall the reasons for her original coma were also mysterious, but equally within speculation.

[JewishRighter]

She died of 6 self inflicted gunshot wounds to the back of the head.

[tbw2]

The question is: did the officials do it, or was it an “honor” killing?