AS LIFE gets just a little easier for women, another slice of Saudi society is finding it harder. The kingdom has never much tolerated public expressions of dissent. Lately it has tightened the screws.

Consider the case of Raif Badawi, a 32-year-old internet campaigner. In 2008 he co-founded a website as a platform for open debate on religion. Banned from travel in 2009 after criticising the official Wahhabist doctrine, he has been in prison since 2012 under a law that bans the “production, preparation, circulation or storage of content that undermines public order, religious values, public decency or privacy.” On May 7th he was sentenced to another ten years in jail, plus 1,000 lashes. Perhaps he is lucky: the public prosecutor, accusing Mr Badawi of apostasy, had sought the death penalty.

Though he may appeal, Mr Badawi must find a new lawyer. His current one, Waleed Abulkhair, one of the brave few to specialise in human rights, is himself in jail. Already banned from travel for several years and facing a series of charges, including “disobeying the rightful ruler” and “inciting international hostility against the kingdom,” he was remanded in custody on April 15th.

These two cases are among a string of arrests and prosecutions of human-rights defenders, would-be reformers and various other critics. A new “anti-terrorism” law passed in February allows for prolonged periods of arbitrary detention. Vague offences such as “destabilising society” and “offending the nation’s reputation” now count as terrorist acts. So, according to a separate recent government decree, do such things as “calling for atheist thought” or “contact with any group hostile to the kingdom”.

Still, Saudi officials say the country has moved closer to international human-rights standards. In March, they note, it announced that it had accepted, in whole or in part, 181 out of 225 recommendations laid out last year by the UN at a meeting on Saudi Arabia under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council. These include, for instance, promises to codify criminal law—currently interpreted by judges on the basis of sharia—and to phase out the system of male guardianship over women.