Khalid Aljabri, Lina al-Hathloul and Abdullah Alaoudh grew up a few islands apart in their al-Falah neighborhood in Riyadh, but never met.
On Friday, when Joseph Biden landed in Jeddah, his native Saudi Arabia, the three exiles first met for a Middle Eastern breakfast in Arlington, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington.
Interestingly, it was Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, who brought them together, and whom Biden greeted on Friday later with a fist despite U.S. intelligence agencies concluding that he approved of the assassination. in 2018 by journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Although the trio come from markedly different families, Aljabri is the son of the former head of Saudi intelligence; Alaoudh is the son of a famous scholar and religious clergyman, and Al-Hathloul’s sister, Loujain, has been an advocate for women’s rights: each is a prominent member of a Saudi diaspora who has called for Prince Mohammed be isolated and let your own family members be freed from their clutches.
“We grew up walking each other. Historically, my father worked for the government. Abdullah’s father was a reformer, and Lina’s family was very liberal. In previous governments, these factions faced off. to each other, but we are a new generation that we can overcome the taboos that were imposed on us, ”Aljabri said.
“The common denominator is MBS”.
Over breakfast, they talked about the neighborhood park where they were going for a walk, not knowing how their lives would one day crash. “We talked about how MBS crushed Saudi civil society and how any criticism of the government is forced into exile instead of being able to do peaceful activism at home, safely,” Aljabri said. “We talked about how brave the Saudi diaspora is, because the price of criticism, for Khashoggi, was death.”
They also talked about the desire of Saudi youth to have more than “bread and circus.”
“They want to play an active role in deciding their future. They want representation in government,” Aljabri said.
All have publicly spoken out against Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, a controversial presidential visit that has been criticized for breaking the campaign vow to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pria”. For assembled dissidents, the U.S. president is “normalizing” the Saudi Crown Prince and validating the perception that the young de facto ruler can literally get away with his assassination.
From left to right: Khalid Aljabri, Abdullah Alaoudh, Lina Al-Hathloul. Photography: courtesy of Khalid Aljabri
Biden has kept his distance from the Crown Prince until Friday, in part in retaliation for his role in ordering the horrific assassination of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist killed by Saudi agents.
Human rights defenders have said they are not optimistic about Biden’s trip, which aims to strengthen tense ties between the US and Saudi Arabia at a time when Biden’s approval ratings have been hit by high oil prices and when the US is eager to counter the Chinese. and Russian influence, will offer any victory for human rights.
In Washington, few understand the extent to which there is more at stake than the reunited trio. Aljabri’s sister and brother Sara and Omar have been detained in Saudi Arabia since 2020 as part of a Saudi campaign against their father, Saad Aljabri. Senior Aljabri, now in exile in Canada, was a close adviser to Mohammed bin Nayef, a former Crown Prince and Home Secretary who is detained in Saudi Arabia and has been seen as a potential political rival. of Prince Mohammed. He has also been involved in litigation against entities associated with the Crown Prince.
“I hope they kill me someday because this guy won’t rest until he sees me dead,” Aljabri told 60 Minutes last year.
Lina Al-Hathloul’s sister, Loujain, is one of Saudi Arabia’s most famous human rights defenders. In 2018, Loujain was one of several women activists arrested for speaking out against a driving ban. When Biden entered the White House, one of his first public announcements was that Loujain, who has alleged that she was tortured while in jail, had been released from prison. But her family, including Lina, who lives in Europe, continues to campaign for a ban on traveling against her.
Abdullah Alaoudh’s father, Salman, was known as a reformist scholar and was arrested in 2017, hours after writing in a tweet about his desire for reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. After being detained for a year without charge, Salman Alaoudh was accused of inciting the public against Prince Mohammed, demanding a change of government and possessing banned books. Now his son Abdullah, who lives in the United States, is the research director of Dawn, a non-profit organization founded by Khashoggi that promotes democracy in the Middle East.
After their meeting, Khalid Aljabri considered how it could have been an alternative reality, if the three were still in Saudi Arabia and not in exile, and if Prince Mohammed had not used “collective punishment”. against the relatives of their perceived enemies.
“She would have been a cardiologist working 80 hours a week. Abdullah would have been a lawyer and academic. Lina would have been one of the first women lawyers, fighting for the reform of the male guardianship system,” she said. “Everything is so unnecessary.”