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In 2012, she received an International Women of Courage Award from the U.S. State Department, which called her “a powerful voice for two of the most significant issues facing Saudi women: women’s suffrage and the guardianship system.”

I believe that this is our chance

For all that, she has faced what human rights organizations call repeated targeting and harassment. In 2014, Saudi authorities barred her from travelling outside the country. In 2016, she was briefly arrested for allegedly managing a Twitter account campaigning for the release of her former husband, Waleed Abu al-Khair, who is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for his work as a human rights lawyer.

Nassima Al-Sadah, who hails from Qatif, a coastal city in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, has campaigned for many of the same causes. In 2015, the first year women were allowed to run in local elections, she was also one of about 900 female candidates across the country.

“I believe that this is our chance, a big chance for us to prove ourselves, and to advertise our intelligence,” she told National Geographic at the time. “Everything is new. All of us try to teach each other, and read the rules and articles about the elections.”

But a day before her campaign launch, al-Sadah was informed by officials that her name had been removed from the list, apparently with no explanation.

Badawi and al-Sadah are now among more than a dozen women’s rights activists arrested in Saudi Arabia since May. Some of them may be tried in the country’s specialized criminal court, established for terrorism cases, and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

The decision to arrest women who campaigned for their right to drive, even after lifting the ban, is “as surprising as it is self-defeating,” said Irwin Cotler, a former MP and international human rights lawyer who has advocated for the release of Raif Badawi.

He adds that Saudi Arabia should not be surprised by Freeland’s comments. “She has been espousing, ever since she became foreign minister, what some have called a feminist human rights foreign policy,” he said. “Naturally, she would be responsive to any attempt to breach international women’s rights.”

Last week, Freeland tweeted her concern about Badawi’s arrest, saying she was “very alarmed” by the situation.