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However, since Prince Muhammad appeared on the Saudi scene, he has become the most controversial figure in the region and perhaps the world, due to the outspoken steps he took and also to accusations of human rights violations.
It gives women the right to drive cars with the right hand and blocks those who claim it with the left. News of his efforts to reform school curricula and eliminate signs of hate coincide with accusations of targeting dissidents abroad.
In foreign media, the news about the opening of Saudi Arabia to tourists is closely related to human rights violations in the Kingdom, so the credit and blame for this are attributed to the same person: Mohammed bin Salman. What is the secret of this contradiction?
On the one hand, Dr. Omaima al-Najjar, a Saudi opponent living in Rome, says: “The changes that the crown prince is making are an attempt to reach out to the international community because his rise to office was illegal, after the removal of former crown prince and arrest of many princes. “
Al-Najjar added in statements that Mohammed bin Salman is trying, through these decisions, to improve his image in world opinion, especially after the war in Yemen and the resulting humanitarian crisis.
On the other hand, Mubarak Al-Ati, writer and political analyst, says that despite the obstacles and objections faced by the crown prince’s reforms, they were welcomed, supported and interacted a lot at home and abroad, especially through the ambitious vision 2030, which paints a picture of a modern kingdom that is open to the world and does not depend. Its economy depends on oil.
In remarks, Al-Aati added that Mohammed bin Salman enjoys strong popular support and support, especially in the youth sector, following his success in taking great steps towards openness and resistance to militants.
During the reign of Prince Muhammad, Saudi women were allowed to drive for the first time in the Kingdom’s history in 2018, and women were allowed to attend football matches, and the powers of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
During his reign, the Saudi citizen was able to attend concerts after spending more than a decade in the capital Riyadh, in addition to reopening cinemas after decades of closure, he established the Entertainment Authority, which held concerts of the world’s most famous artists, and parades Fashion.
And by order of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia abolished for the first time texts that incite hatred towards other religions, from new editions of textbooks, according to a report by the Institute for the Monitoring of Peace and Cultural Tolerance in Education. School.
The new amendments included the removal of hate lessons, be it against Christianity or Judaism, and even against homosexuals, in addition to the Islamic dictates of defending the faith using violence.
The Executive Director of the Institute for the Monitoring of Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, Marcus Schiff, says: “This change demands optimism (…). It is a real institutional effort at the highest level to modernize the plans of educational study in Saudi Arabia “.
According to the report, the most intolerant parts of these curricula have been omitted, including the death penalty in all its forms for “adultery, acts of homosexuality and acts of witchcraft,” as described above for these curricula.
All these reforms are “superficial”, according to the American journalist Reem Abdul Latif, who worked for various Saudi media. And in an opinion piece published in the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” titled “How Saudi Arabia Terrifies Women”, what she saw in the Gulf kingdom prompted her to make sure that “the reforms advocated by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were superficial and used as a means of repressing people who believed in real change. ” “.
“After what I saw there, I knew the time had come not only to resign my position, but to leave the Gulf region entirely,” Reem said. “I have witnessed ongoing verbal abuse towards my coworkers, intimidation, assault and harassment of women.”
The abuse was not limited to the personal side, according to Reem, but was also related to the professional side, as female journalists were underestimated and their creative ideas were marginalized.
Abdul Aziz Al-Moayad, a Saudi activist and dissident living in Ireland, says that “Mohammed bin Salman is the fruit of a tyrannical and dictatorial regime, so he cannot be called a reformer and a reformer, and that if he wants reform he must change his regime , because the problem is not in the individuals but in the regime, which is absolute monarchy. “
Al-Moayad clarified that Saudi Arabia has reached the stage of a financial and political explosion, and that the government is aware of this, and has therefore carried out these reforms, adding that what Mohammed bin Salman did anyone else would have done, pointing out that the movement for these reforms started during the King Abdullah era.
“Prince Muhammad is violent and sharp, he does not care about the opinion of the Saudi people and believes that the people are not qualified to participate in decision-making,” he said.
In turn, Naseer Al-Omari, a writer and political analyst, said that what the Saudi crown prince is doing cannot be called political reform in the full sense of the word, adding: “He did not amend the constitution or change the form to transfer power nor did he go to a parliamentary monarchy, and he did not talk about it. “
Foreign Policy magazine believes these changes were sold as major reforms for both the Saudis and the West, with the aim of winning over the youth of the kingdom. Roughly two-thirds of the Saudi population is under 35 years old, and it deterred them from challenging the monarchy, as well as attracting foreign investment to help diversify the economy.
It is true that the young prince did not change the system of government for the absolute monarchy, but that did not prevent him from using his powers to implement many reforms.
Al-Atti says: “The reforms have cut off the path of blackmail that some organizations and media have used to hide behind declarations of human rights and the conditions of women. He pointed out that Saudi women are partners of men. by assuming responsibility for building, operating, and managing all state facilities.
Ati added that what he described as the “smear campaigns” to which the crown prince is subjected and his radical reforms in society, behind them are militant and extremist circles, internal and external, especially those groups that Saudi Arabia has been prohibited by law and classified as terrorist entities such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Aati added that Prince Mohammed’s decisions removed from the hands of these groups the most important roles that were under the authority of the Saudi decision under ritual fatwas, such as religious, educational and media platforms, as well as the funding and donation networks that They were organized and the issuance of strict laws regarding funds going to suspicious parties in pros and cons.
He noted that “those behind the smear and demonization campaigns are hostile regional regimes, such as the extremist Iranian regime and the despotic Turkish regime, in addition to the Doha regime, which claims everything that would offend the Kingdom and the Crown Prince.”
But the main point of contradiction remains that these reforms never slow down the rate of persecution of human rights defenders and activists at home and abroad. Reports from human rights organizations revealed that jailed women’s rights activists and political prisoners were subjected to sexual assault and torture in Saudi Arabian prisons, according to The Independent.
According to a report by the Grant Liberty Human Rights Organization, some 309 Saudi political prisoners have suffered human rights violations since Prince Muhammad bin Salman became the crown prince of the kingdom in 2017.
The report confirmed that 20 prisoners were arrested for political crimes they committed as children, noting that five of them were executed and another 13 were sentenced to death.
It is strange that the arrest campaign launched by the Crown Prince included human rights activists calling for the reforms he had implemented, such as activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, who was arrested for demanding that women be allowed to drive.
Al-Najjar explains this decrease, al-Najjar that Mohammed bin Salman arrested activists who demanded the same reforms, in order to eliminate any popular or civil movement that could threaten their authorities, because many of the detained activists are influential in the public opinion and have a voice at the social level in the country.
“The authorities do not want to take Loujain and his colleagues the pride and honor of the change. The authorities do not want any change to be attributed to influential civilians because this could pose a threat to the Saudi authorities, who used to have absolute parental authority. “he added.
“The Saudi feminist movement is the first successful civil movement, and this makes the authorities in constant fear. That this continued movement will lead to another revolution,” she added.
In turn, Al-Moayad said that the Crown Prince “is afraid of the existence of figures whom people see as true reformers who sacrifice their lives for change and reform, and that people can join them.” . He continued: “The government is afraid that people will say that the government has approved these reforms after our request, so why not? We are claiming our other rights, such as the right to vote. “
Lina Al-Hathloul, sister of activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, said that shortly after Mohammed bin Salman was appointed crown prince, the old red lines were erased while the new ones remained unknown. He added: “Before we knew we shouldn’t challenge the royal family and religion, but now we don’t. We know what the red lines are. “
On the other hand, Al-Omari says that Mohammed bin Salman seeks to silence any voice in the Kingdom, even if it is condescending on social issues, because he fears that it will have a political influence and that these voices will become a political polarization that affects his powers and the way of governing in the country.
He noted that the Crown Prince used the term religious reform to suppress the sheikhs and religious symbols in the kingdom, and said: “He seeks to gather all the powers in his hand, not only the political, but also the intellectual so that there are no voices that contradict the orientations and wishes of (the Crown Prince) in these stages. “
Therefore, Al-Moayad concludes that, far from superficial reforms, “the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia is one of the most dangerous conditions in the world, and few countries in the world suffer what the country suffered during the era by Mohammed bin Salman “.
