“Everyone is scared. The situation has never been this bad.”
Abdulrahman al-Sadhan’s sister has not been able to see or even speak to her brother on the phone in the year since his arrest by the Saudi secret police. She believes he is being beaten or tortured in jail and may be in imminent danger. And now more waves of arrests continue in Saudi Arabia, even including two dual US-Saudi citizens.
And it is not only in Saudi.
“When I came to America with my daughters we read so much about the holocaust and Anne Frank and dropped so many tears for the Jewish people
I never thought I would drop my tears for my brother in a very similar case.”
Husenjan Asqar’s sister has not been able to contact or hear
from her brother either, or her nephews Behram and Ekram Yarmuhemmed, since they were put into the “re-education” camps in China, where she fears they are also being abused as part of the forced brain washing they are being subjected to.
However, when the names of specific victims are raised, often the abuse is lessened and family members are able to contact them.
This was the case for the three women activists that Saudi Arabia released on March 28, where a public outcry and high profile stories in the media led to their release.
If we really support freedom and human rights, we must stand up for individual victims. The list of individuals should be publicized at every opportunity, and brought up at any hearing or event where we are doing business with anyone associated with these governments.
Rep Kirkpatrick, I am asking if you can start, by mentioning Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, Behram and Ekram Yarmuhemmed, as examples, and if you can support compiling a list of victim names that will be raised. Is this being done somewhere in Congress that I could see? Abdulrahman al-Sadhan in particular may be killed soon, if we do not raise up his name to protect him.
Thank you
–Golda Velez
constituent, Tucson Az
I have spoken directly to Abdulrahman al-Sadhan’s sister Areej Al Sadhan ( @AreejASadhan ); and also Husenjan Asqar’s sister the Uyghur poet Serwi ( @GSerwi ) and can provide direct contact information for them to staffers.
Background information can be found here:
China Targets Prominent Uighur Intellectuals to Erase an Ethnic Identity
Saudi Arabia temporarily releases three women activists
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In the Soviet Union, Stalin systematically targeted Jewish intellectuals, artists, writers, and journalists, thinking, that if he wiped out these people, he could eventually destroy Jewish culture in the Soviet Union. Ironically many heroes of rhe Revolution were Jewish. Autocrats operate from the same playbook, with ideology just a shirt they can take on or off.