Nationwide Protest in Saudi Arabia Planned for Today

July 17, 2021
IGA Staff
Washington DC – Activists determined to end the reign of the ruling Saudi regime are planning non-violent protests to take place inside the country on Monday, July 19, to coincide with Arafah, the final day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Islam’s most-sacred sites.

Activists outside Saudi Arabia, including the exiled Marzooq Mashaan, a Sorbonne-trained academic, have joined forces with many inside the country to launch the protests to force the al-Saud family to give way to a broad-based government. “These peaceful protests will continue until the demands of the people are fulfilled,” Mashaan said.

Mashaan and other activists have launched the National Initiative for Change (NIC) organize the protest movement. The NIC has issued several communiques calling on people to participate in public protests, including, among other actions, marches, boycotts of shops and banks, graffiti campaigns, distribution of anti-monarchy literature, and the burning of tires outside residential areas. All of these activities are banned and such activities have in the past been met with violent police repression.

Mashaan added, “The choice to start the protest on Arafah Day is meant to underscore its peaceful and discipline nature… We moved to plan unique forms of protests that are in line with our society’s culture and showcase the peaceful nature and of our people.”

Other activists inside the country — such as one using Twitter handle, Kashkool, who runs of the Twitter Spaces for discussion of plans for the non-violent protests — posted a video on Friday, July 17, https://twitter.com/David62575607/status/1416001377940262921?s=20, saying, “The call for the Arafah Day protests proved that the

, action, and regaining rights,” he said. Khashkool refrained from revealing the city from he was speaking.

Alia Al-Huwaiti, a prominent activist living in London, has announced support for the non-violent action, saying, the planned” Arafah Day protest is unique and is the first of its kind to express the dissatisfaction of the people around the country and to demand their rights by going to the streets.”

The unelected regime of the al Saud family — now de facto headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud has ruled most of the Arabian Peninsula since the 1930s. The ruling Saud clan, one of the richest and most dissolute families on earth, is well known for its wholesale violations of human rights, including torture, extrajudicial imprisonment, executions, and beheadings.

The protests’ planners have notified the Saudi authorities of their plans. Calls and emails to the Saudi embassy in Washington went unanswered.

Online: National Initiative for Change @Mobadarah1442