Nathalie Morin is a Canadian woman who fell in love with a Saudi Arabian man.She moved halfway around the world to live with him — after he was deported from Quebec for being in this country illegally.That was her mistake.The coup...
Nathalie Morin is a Canadian woman who fell in love with a Saudi Arabian man.She moved halfway around the world to live with him — after he was deported from Quebec for being in this country illegally.That was her mistake.The couple has three children, one of whom was born in Canada. Whether they were ever actually married is unclear, as is so much about the saga that has been designated a “private family matter” by Foreign Affairs. Morin’s mother, Johanne Durocher, has for years been pleading with Ottawa to bring Morin and the kids to Canada, alleging her daughter is a victim of domestic violence, abuse and rape by her husband, was denied adequate food, and was being kept in the Kingdom against her will.This much is not in dispute: Two Saudi women who attempted to help Morin were sentenced on Saturday to 10 months in prison. They were found guilty on a Sharia law charge of takhbib — incitement of a wife to defy the authority of her husband.Saudi Arabia is ruthlessly misogynist in culture and law. Among other proscriptions, women are not allowed to drive. Until recently, they weren’t even permitted to ride a bicycle. Equality Now, a global organization that advocates for the human rights of women and girls around the world, notes of the change in law that now allows females to get on a bike: “Women have recently been allowed to cycle as long as it is in a circle, with a male guardian and with no specific destination in mind.”The two women who attempted to assist Morin are Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Ayuni. They are a remarkably brave pair of female activists operating inside a repressive society and they’re now going to pay the price for that. Al-Huwaider has been in trouble with Saudi authorities before for repeatedly driving her car on public highways, filming herself whilst doing so and posting the video online.It is as thorns in the side of the Saudi regime, the women maintain, that they were prosecuted on the takhbib charge.“These harsh sentences will not deter us from our Islamic duties of helping those who are oppressed, needy, and to press for women’s rights,” they said in a statement published in Arabic on the Membar al-Ahwar website. “The charge of trying to smuggle Morin out of the country was dropped because the prosecution did not have enough evidence.”One of them has children who live in the U.S. and visited them regularly. But the sentence imposed includes a two-year ban on travel outside Arabia following the prison term. The women have 30 days to appeal.Equality Now has launched a media campaign in support of al-Huwaider and al-Ayuni, urging foreign governments to condemn the sentence. “This is part of a wider issue of the need for women to have male guardians at all,” said spokesperson Brendan Wynne, in an email to the Star.In a phone interview from Amman, Jordan, Suad Abu-Dayyeh, Equality Now’s consultant for the Middle East and North Africa, said the Saudi women were prosecuted — and persecuted — for their activism, and not only on behalf of Morin but against compulsory male guardianship for all women and child marriage. “The government thinks that by bringing these women into court, they will stop resisting because they’ve been involved in several campaigns for women’s rights. Canada and other countries must push to have this sentence deleted.”Al-Huwaider and al-Ayuni insist they had never attempted to “kidnap” Morin or counsel her in how to leave her husband.“All they did was meet with her once, for a few minutes, at a shopping mall, because they wanted to give her food,” says Abu-Dayyeh.The Saudi women were arrested a year ago for their dealings with Morin.At the time, Morin’s mother told reporters she had contacted the Saudi activists because she was worried that her daughter was not eating and could not le
