Saudi Arabia widens crackdown on women's rights activists

BBC News ^ | 5/23/2018 | BBC

[Spiridon]

Saudi Arabia has reportedly arrested three more women's rights activists in a crackdown launched just weeks before a ban on women driving will be lifted.

Human rights groups said at least 10 people, most of them women who had long campaigned for the right to drive, had now been detained since last week.

Officials have said they are suspected of "suspicious contact with foreign parties" and "undermining "stability".

Other activists have said the crackdown is "unprecedented" and "shocking".......

[AdmSmith]

18 minutes ago
Still no MbS:

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/535705/SAUDI-ARABIA/King-receives-dean-of-diplomatic-corps-and-heads-of-diplomatic-groups

[BlackVeil]

Golly! Wild rumours indeed.

[BlackVeil]

Many thanks for that link. Definite evidence that something strange is happening.

[Cronos]

I'm pretty sure there has been an assassination attempt. Now, whether it was successful or not is anyone's GUESS. But what is true is that this means that there will soon be civil war in Saudia.

If you drive a fuel guzzler watch out, prices will rise.

[BlackVeil]

The latest “cabinet meeting” pics are also now shown to be false - these are old photos.

https://twitter.com/DrMHaidar/status/1000657378369572864

[AdmSmith]

Still no solid info, but the most likely estimate is that MbS was injured, not dead, 21APR2018 and taken to hospital and the persons around him are arguing what to do.

Yes, the above is really no news, and that is the case, i.e. no news.

[nuconvert]

The Nation is far left, so consider the source

[AdmSmith]

Yes, but we should check all sources.

BTW here is a rumor that MbS today is keeping a low profile in order to trick his opponents to disclose themselves and then take care of them https://twitter.com/mujtahidd/status/1001467339655794690

[nuconvert]

Whatever works

[AdmSmith]

While we wait for confirmation that it really was MbS on the phone
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-call-with-saudi-arabian-crown-prince-3-june-2018

here is a map from https://www.vox.com/a/maps-explain-the-middle-east

The dialects of Arabic today
This map shows the vast extent of the Arabic-speaking world and the linguistic diversity within it. Both go back to the Caliphates of the sixth and seventh century, which spread Arabic from its birthplace on the Arabian Peninsula across Africa and the Middle East. Over the last 1,300 years the language's many speakers have diverged into distinct, sometimes very different, dialects. Something to look at here: where the dialects do and do not line up with present-day political borders. In places where they don't line up, you're seeing national borders that are less likely to line up with actual communities, and in some cases more likely to create problems.

[AdmSmith]

According to this https://www.raialyoum.com/index.php/%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%AB%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9/ MbS is afraid of new attacks from his relatives

[nuconvert]

I haven’t seen the MbS story reported by any major news organizations, so it makes me lean towards his being alive

[AdmSmith]

They have posted questions like where is he? http://www.newsweek.com/wheres-mohammed-bin-salman-not-dead-according-saudi-arabia-950996

But the odd thing is that the Saudi news sites have published pictures of MbS, but it was possible to prove that those pictures were old. See earlier in this thread.