Saudi Arabia is about to lift the ban on women driving. So it has started jailing defenders of women’s rights instead. This sounds like a scene from Through the Looking-Glass where the Red Queen announces that what seems obvious is the opposite of what is really obvious. This time the role of logic-defying royal is played by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who will end the embarrassment of Saudi Arabia being the only nation to ban women from driving, but only, it seems, give those who stay quiet the right to drive.

In a country where many women have wider grievances than driving, the crown prince did not want the female activists who had campaigned for years for an end to the wrong-headed discrimination to become a model for revolt. Instead of arguments, the heir to the Saudi throne wanted silence. Having won a battle, the activists had made it plain that they were having none of it. They have paid for their pluck with their liberty, ending up behind bars while Saudi media besmirch their reputation as “traitors”. The protesters should be congratulated for taking a stand.

Saudi Arabia treats half its population as second-class citizens, who to travel, work or even receive hospital treatment require the consent of a male guardian. From birth to death, it is grossly unfair that women are delivered from one man to the next – first their father, then their husband and often then their sons. The activists were right to have petitioned the royal court to abolish the male guardianship system, and their bravery is a testament to what happens when common sense meets a world that has none. Instead of jail time the activists should be honoured for their principled dissent. Freedom of speech matters not just because it helps to identify what is important but also because it helps to identify who is important.

Saudi Arabia says it is serious about its reform programme. But this looks like window dressing for repression. That the crown prince seeks support from Donald Trump, who erodes the norms of American democracy and consolidates power by demonising marginalised groups and women, is a bad sign. Arab states must come to terms with the modern world: most of them have no laws that directly ban gender discrimination. There must be an acceptance in the region that daughters can contribute just as much to society as sons. Men and women must be able to reach their full potential for economies to utilise all their resources. That means women must be allowed the same choices as men to be equal. Nowhere is this more urgent than Saudi Arabia, but other nations are also failing. To be a democrat in the post-Arab-spring Middle East is to be a sane person in a world filled with lunatics. It’s like being on the other side of Alice’s looking-glass, where everything is reversed.

In Egypt Abdel Fatah al-Sisi was re-elected “president” with 97% of votes earlier this year. Yet this is a “democracy” where civil rights seem non-existent: in March a woman was arrested by Egyptian authorities. Her crime? Speaking to the BBC about the forced disappearance of her daughter. Or consider Tunisia, the poster-child for transition to democracy from dictatorship. When moderate Islamists won local elections and put forward a veil-free woman as the country’s first female mayor of the capital it was the secular party that blocked her from taking power, a clear denial of her political authority. Reducing inequality means advancing women’s rights. For all the talk of progress in the Arab world – as Saudi Arabia shows – the position of women is either standing still or, worse, going backwards.