Husband of ‘Saudi Rosa Parks’ arrested amid crackdown on activists

The husband of Saudi Arabia’s “Rosa Parks” has been arrested amid a crackdown in the kingdom on those supportive of women’s rights.

Ayman al-Drees, 31, quietly backed his New York-based wife, feminist Malak al-Shehri, before he was arrested April 4 under mysterious circumstances in eastern Saudia Arabia, NBC News reported.

The Bowling Green University graduate didn’t publicly advocate for social reform, but his wife was on the front lines of the movement.

Al-Shehri, 35, was dubbed the “Saudi Rosa Parks” when she tweeted in 2016 a photo of herself not wearing the mandatory headscarf or abaya for women. She was detained for five days over the act of defiance against the kingdom’s conservative dress code.

The feminist later fled Saudi Arabia in 2018 when authorities arrested a handful of women with activist backgrounds, NBC News reported. Her husband remained behind in the country.

Al-Drees was detained by Saudi authorities hours after he called his wife to tell her he was being followed by an unmarked car.

“He always lived safe,” al-Shehri told NBC News. “I am the reckless one.”

He was among at least 14 people with ties to activists or those jailed who were detained in the latest sweep of arrests, NBC News reported.

The arrests follow the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

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