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Souad Al-Shammary Must Be Freed!

UPDATE: Our petition with Change.org got 78,147 signatures. We are so grateful to everyone who signed and shared the petition globally. Very happy to report that Souad Al-Shammary was freed Feb 2, 2015.

Here is a more recent article about Souad: A liberal mother of six jailed for challenging Saudi taboos

Souad Al-Shammary is a human/woman’s rights activist  who was recently arrested in Saudi Arabia. I was able to connect to Souad’s daughter who wanted to be a part of our Worldwide Women’s Support Circle petition/ campaign that Change.org has taken an interest in. Change.org has promoted this campaign and with their help the number of signatures has more than doubled in a few days, which is very important for our petition to make a significant difference.  Also within our petition site, there is a Saudi women to drive campaign link, since it was a woman activist for the driving campaign that put me in touch with the  wonderful and supportive Change.org representative. 

What came from the first draft of the petition to our latest draft is a plea from Souad’s daughter, which is very touching and powerful. To be able to connect to Souad’s daughter and to directly support her and her family is a miracle of todays technology.  Souad’s daughter shared directly with me that all she and her family want is for their mother to be released from prison. Connecting to Souad’s daughter and having such wonderful support from Change.org has touched my heart deeply and inspire me to do all I can to make sure that the world is aware of Souad’s arrest. https://www.change.org/p/saudi-government-???????-????????-help-free-my-mother-souad-al-shammary-prominent-human-rights-activist-and-women-s-rights-advocate

This brave woman, Souad Al-Shammary has done nothing wrong. She has challenged the system, and in the case of the female gender in Saudi Arabia and so many other places globally, the system must be challenged! Women aren’t children, and they shouldn’t be treated as such. They have thoughts, dreams, they are intelligent and amazing beings and their voices need to be heard. I recently came across this latest insanity to control the female gender in Saudi.  Saudi Arabia’s Religious Police Outlaw ‘Tempting Eyes’ The religious police in Saudi want a ban/law to enforce women to not have “tempting eyes.” This ridiculous idea, thanks to the media quickly spread to all parts of the earth. Who is going to be the judge of whether women have tempting eyes or not? How many girls and women will suffer from this ban by men who think its their duty to enforce this crazy idea? These religious police in Saudi want to use  fear and intimidation to stop women who have the courage to speak our against male guardianship laws, and for religious freedom and driving. These examples of human/women’s rights violations if not challenged, will put women even further behind than they are now. If these men get away with this, then how many other ultra conservative men will pick up on this, how many  girls and women who are already extremely oppressed, abused and who are suffering in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and  Africa, will suffer even more?

We need men to speak up. If the men don’t speak up for women in a place like Saudi Arabia, then who will? If men globally don’t become advocates for equality and freedom for our sisters, then they will continue to suffer in so many countless ways. We need people everywhere to say, “Enough is enough!”

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