As the ultraconservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia promotes a new willingness to espouse more liberal social policies towards women, FRANCE 24 is joined by Lina al-Hathloul, Head of Monitoring and Advocacy at ALQST for Human Rights, following the arrest of her sister, Loujain al-Hathloul, an activist and popular fitness instructor widely followed on social media. Amid a widespread crackdown on dissent across the kingdom, Ms Loujain al-Hathloul is being charged with rebellion, defaming the kingdom, and taking on the justice system. Our guest Ms. Lina Al-Hathloul dismisses the kingdom’s “PR campaign that Saudi Arabia’s undertaking to flirt with the West to have tourists visit the country.” She asserts that the kingdom remains “a dictatorship and a police state” where nothing has improved for the population of 36 million, au contraire: “It has even gotten worse with the unprecedented prison sentences” and executions, even of minors.

Source: France24.com