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Waleed Abulkhair
Waleed Abulkhair in November 2012
Nationality	Saudi Arabia
Spouse	Samar Badawi

Waleed Sami Abulkhair, a Saudi lawyer and human rights activist, head of Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA). Listed by Forbes magazine as one of top 100 Most Arab Influencers on twitter.

Early Life and Education

Waleed was born on June 17, 1979, in the coastal city of Jeddah, western of Saudi Arabia. He got his bachelor degree (2003) in Arabic Language from King Abdul Aziz University. In 2007, Waleed started his career as a lawyer where he joined Essam Basrawi’s office for law firm and legal consultations. Then he moved to Jordan where he did his Master degree in Islamic Law (jurisprudence and its origins) from Al Yramouk University in 2009, the topic of his thesis was “Connection and Disconnection In Presumptions, Causes and judgments” supervised by Dr. Abdul Jalil Zauhair Damra. In the same year, and after graduation, Waleed established his own human rights organization (MHRSA) which he managed to register it in Canada later in 2012 to became the first registered Saudi human rights origination.

Beginning of Activities

In 2007, Waleed and few other initiators released a reform petition called ( Parameters of the Constitutional Monarchy) in which they have requested from the Saudi royal family to change to current ruling regime (absolute monarchy) into a democratic system that insure the participation of the people through free elections. One year later, he organised a hunger strike for prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia for 48 hours as the first hunger strike campaign in Saudi Arabia for a human rights case.

Prominence in the community

2009 can be considered as a major milestone in Waleed’s life. In this year, a lawsuit against the interior ministry to release a reformer activist (Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Shumari) was filed by Waleed. Additionally, he founded Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Waleed participated in the Alliance of Youth Movements (AYM) Summit in Mexico. While in Yemen, Waleed became a Certified Trainer on Human Rights by Human Rights Information & Training Center (HRITC). Later in that year, he and other youth activists launched a campaign called “Jeddah Save” after the city faced a devastating flood, where they sat up a facebook page that has been used as a key platform to manage and organize Jeddah saving efforts and actions.

International representation

In 2010, Waleed started to build his international reputation as a credible and reliable source to represent Saudi Arabia internationally in human rights causes. He participated in two meetings arranged by Bridging The Gulf, one was in the European Parliament about the human rights situation in the Gulf states, the other was in Kuwait about human rights activists in the GCC . Moreover, he attended a conference that was organised by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Bahrain. Also in Bahrain, Waleed was invited by Front Line Defenders in a meeting to discuss issues related to Human Rights in the GCC countries with major European diplomats. Additionally, he attended a workshop in monitoring and documentation of human rights violations, conducted by Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) and the Scandinavian Institute For Human Rights.

Locally, and in the same year, Waleed got appointed by the British Embassy as the dedicated lawyer for a British prisoner.

Samar Badawi Case

Samar Badawi is a Saudi woman who was in prison for disobedience under the Saudi Arabian male guardianship system, Waleed was her lawyer and defended her in court in addition to initiating an online campaign that created a huge awareness about her case within the Saudi society using different social channels such as twitter, facebook and a dedicated blog that was publishing all the documents and updates related to the case. Free Samar Campaign is considered the first Saudi twitter campaign that made an effect on reality. Within a few days, it became a public story, and was covered massively by local media. Three weeks later, Samar was released and Waleed won what is called the most important case of women, later Samar became Waleed’s wife.

Society Movements

Waleed was a major player in many movement related to the Saudi society in the year of 2011. He wrote many petitions demanding civil and political rights, the latest one demanded the right of women to drive cars. In judicial precedent, Abulkhair filed a lawsuit against the ban on women participation in municipal election. He also launched a campaign for municipal election with other youth activist, the result was the winning of their candidate. In that year, Forbes Middle East named Waleed AbulKhair as one of the top 100 Arab activist on twitter with more than 40,000 followers.

== International Recognition ==

In the year of 2012, Waleed was selected by the U.S. Department of State as a finalist in the Middle East Partnership Initiative’s Leaders for Democracy Fellowship program. Additionally, he joined the Irish Front Line Defenders Foundation for the protection of human rights defenders. Waleed also got listed by Portland Communications as one of the top 40 Arabs and the top 10 Saudis on twitter with more than 53,000 followers. He and a Tunisian lawyer (Radiya Nasrawi) shared the 2012 Swedish Olof Palme memorial international prize, and because of a travel ban, Waleed could not receive the prize himself, two members of MHRSA went and collected the prize on his behalf, his wife Samar Badawi and Fahad Al Fahad. Abulkhair made a significant step in his human rights path when he registered his organisation Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA) in Canada as an independent human rights organisation, following the refusal of the Saudi authorities to allow the organisation to be registered in the kingdom. MHRSA is now considered the first Saudi human rights organization registered outside Saudi Arabia.

Smood, the weekly saloon

As a reaction to the Saudi Authorities decision to shut down “Bridges café” in Jeddah, which was a meeting point for Saudi youth to talk and discuss several topics, Waleed started a weekly gathering in his saloon, hosting a few dozen of people, most of them politically engaged Saudi youth from different backgrounds, topics focuses on political, religious and human rights issues, in addition to cultural and intellectual subjects. The saloon is named “Smood,” an Arabic word that can be translated as “resistance” or “steadfastness.”

Smood was attacked heavily by many conservatives on the social media and on TV. It has been claimed that the saloon is encouraging atheism and skepticism, especially after Hamza Kashgari’s case knowing that he was a regular visitor of this saloon. One day, few conservatives visited Smood and secretly recorded the discussion without the attendees permission, on the next day, they tweeted negatively about the topics discussed and the type of people attending Smood. Moreover, they have contacted a TV show and requested from the government and the religious police to take a serious actions toward such meetings. Waleed defended his saloon by saying that he is offering the freedom of speech, the freedom of believe and the freedom of expression, which are things that cannot be provided outside the door of his house.

Publications

Our steadfast pursuit of a freer Saudi Arabia, Washington post, 2012. Saudis Stymied by Fear, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, 2011. Additionally, waleed has published over 300 articles in Saudi newspapers concerning legal reforms and human rights issues.

Media

Many major international journalists interviewed Waleed, for example: Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post Pierre Prier, Le Figaro Frank Gardner, BBC Jacob Templin, TIME Magazine

Moreover, several media were interested about Waleed’s activities such as CNN, AlJazeera, AlArabiya, AlHiwar, Financial Times and many others.

References

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