Arrests of women activists put Saudi Arabia’s reform agenda into question
Riyadh — Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on women’s rights campaigners, just weeks before the much-hyped lifting of a ban on women driving, has revived doubts about its crown prince’s inscrutable and seemingly erratic approach to reforms in the kingdom. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has seized most levers of power since rising from relative obscurity, is trying to diversify the biggest Arab economy away from oil and open up the deeply conservative Muslim country by easing strict social rules and promoting entertainment. He has won praise at home and abroad for his modernisation efforts, but he has also provoked unease with an anti-corruption purge last year, when scores of royals and top businessmen were detained at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh. Most were freed after reaching settlements with the government in a secretive campaign that sent shockwaves through the business community. The arrest this month of nearly a dozen prominent activists, mostly women who for years urged re...
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