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Raif Badawi

Humanitarian, Free Thinker, Writer

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Blogging is Bad for your Back

Raif Badawi was flogged in public 50 times in January.
He has 950 lashes and nearly a decade in prison left to serve - simply for blogging about free speech.

Just after Friday prayers on 9 January, Raif Badawi was led by Saudi officials out of a bus and into the middle of the square in front of al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah. A large crowd had gathered to see the flogging.

Raif stood in the middle of the crowd, handcuffed and shackled by his ankles, his face uncovered. A security officer approached Raif and began caning him across the back and legs, until he had been beaten 50 times. A witness told us it took just five minutes to cane Raif 50 times; the lashes were constant and quick.

On 21 January, two days before he was due to be publicly lashed another 50 times in a Jeddah square, doctors deemed Raif too unwell to be flogged. The week before, the authorities had postponed his scheduled 50 lashes after a prison doctor advised that Raif was unfit to be lashed, and that the flogging should be postponed for a week on medical grounds.

Raif is not a criminal – he is a prisoner of conscience who called for free speech on his website. His treatment by authorities in Saudi Arabia has been nothing short of a vicious act of cruelty. Ask them to release Raif now.

About RaifHow To Help
  1. Tweet Saudi Arabia
  2. Pressure Government
  3. Contact Saudi Embassy
  4. Demonstrate
  5. Tweet Raif & Family

@ Tweet
Saudi Arabia

Ministry of Justice: @MojKsa
Ministry of Interior: @MOISaudiArabia
National Society for Human Rights: @NSHRSA
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: @KSAMOFA
King Salman: @KingSalman

Pressure Your Government
Pressure Your Government
Your government should be doing all it can to make Saudi Arabia do the right thing. Tweet your government’s official accounts (for example, your Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or your country’s embassy in Saudi Arabia) and ask them to push Saudi Arabia to stop the flogging and release Raif now.
Embassies in Saudi Arabia:
UK: @UKinSaudiArabia
Netherlands: @NLinSaudiArabia
Sweden: @SwedeninKSA
Canada: @CanEmbSA
USA: @USEmbassyRiyadh
Germany: @GermanyinKSA
EU: @EUintheGCC
Contact the Saudi Embassy
Contact the Saudi Embassy in your country
Search online for the phone or fax details of the Saudi Arabia embassy in your country, and call them up to demand that Raif is not flogged again and that they release him immediately. We know this can be a particularly effective (and annoying) form of campaigning. You could also Tweet them, though the only Saudi Arabian embassies known to have Twitter accounts are the USA @SaudiEmbassyUSA and UK @SaudiEmbassyUK.
Embassy Contact Details:
If you’re not on Twitter, you can find the contact details of the Saudi Arabia embassy in your country here.
Demonstrate For Raif
Demonstrate For Raif
Across the globe, campaigners have started to organise protests outside Saudi Arabia embassies. Contact your local Amnesty International office to see if something is already planned, or get some friends together to organise your own demonstration.
Raif Badawi Demonstration
Click here for the Latest Events planned
Raif Badawi and Children
Send Your Support
Please send your messages of solidarity to Raif’s family, so they know the world is standing with them and pressing Saudi Arabia to release him. Tweet to @raif_badawi (Raif’s official Twitter account) and @miss9afi (Raif’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada with their three children).

Raif's Time In Prison

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"Secularism respects everyone and doesn't offend anyone. It's the practical solution to lift countries out of the third world and into the first."
"We should not hide that fact that Muslims in Saudi Arabia not only disrespect the beliefs of others, but also charge them with infidelity."
"For me, liberalism simply means, live and let live. This is a splendid slogan."

Raif Badawi

Raif Badawi was whipped in front of a mosque in public after Friday prayers. Not only is the sentence savage, and an absolute violation of human rights and dignity, but its execution is designed for maximum humiliation, for vengeance. It is a naked attempt to intimidate all those who question authority into silence.

International Humanist and Ethical Union

"Raif simply championed free speech. This is not a crime; Saudi authorities must release him immediately on these grounds.

We are asking Saudi Arabia to quash Raif’s conviction and overturn his unjust prison sentence, fine, media and travel ban – and stop flogging him immediately. Flogging is a barbaric medieval ‘punishment’ that constitutes torture – there is never justification for its use."

Amnesty International

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Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada