By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Ayman al-Drees wasn’t outspoken. Even as he advocated for women’s rights he tried to keep a low profile, his wife and fellow activist Malak “Angel” al-Shehri said. She was the high profile feminist who was pushing hard against Saudi Arabia’s guardianship system. “I’m the activist. I’m the women’s rights activist. I’m the feminist,” she said Monday (April 7).
They met at the time she was arrested for tweeting a photo of herself without a head scarf in violation of the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islam. That photo brought forth a surge of violent threats with some arguing she should be beheaded.
Now it’s become clear that for al-Drees maintaining a low profile wasn’t enough. The 2016 Bowling Green State University graduate is among a number of activists rounded up by Saudi officials in a crackdown on advocates for greater women’s rights in the kingdom. The New York Times published a story on the arrests April 5.
Al-Shehri said she last heard from her husband late last week. They were on the telephone when he said people were coming to arrest him. He said he loved her, urged her to be careful, and to take care of herself. That’s the last she’s heard from him.
Al-Shehri has no way, she said, to get any information about him, even what charges he faces.
Al-Drees worked as an insurance underwriter, but his passion was as a translator of documents related to human rights. He did this to enlighten people about the fight for women’s rights with Saudi Arabia.
His wife wants people to know that side of him. Trolls on social media, she said, are trying to paint him and the others arrested as traitors.
Al-Shehri now lives in California. Last May she fled her country when some of her friends in the movement were arrested.
In February she had visited the Hubbell-Staeble family in Bowling Green with al-Drees.
Al-Drees came to know the Bowling Green family when he took a General Studies Writing course taught by Hubbell-Staeble. He was one of a trio of male international students who bonded in the class. Later he became close friends with Hubbell-Staeble’s sons, Nathan and Aidan.
He often visited the house, Dawn Hubbell-Staeble said.
His wife said that Hubbell-Staeble was “his American mother.”
Al-Shehri said her husband had good memories of Bowling Green, and that his experience here helped shape his later activism.
“He was very insightful, very caring, and super bright,” Hubbell-Staeble said. The papers he wrote for her class were focused on human rights and environmental issues.
And he was always willing to help. Once in class she mentioned in passing that she had yard work to do. He asked what time should he be there.
In February, Hubbell-Staeble said, he was very concerned about leaving his wife alone in the United States when he returned to Saudi Arabia, and asked Hubbell-Staeble to look out for her.
He lost his ability to leave the country after he returned. That, Hubbell-Staeble said, was clearly a sign he would be arrested.
Al-Shehri said she was confused when he was banned from traveling. He hadn’t done anything, she said. He was very aware of needing to stay safe. But the Saudis arrested their whole circle of friends.
All were involved in fighting the system within Saudi Arabia that gives power over women’s lives to their male relatives. Their struggle is to end male guardianship and to establish effective domestic abuse laws that now do not exist.
For many years, the 35-year-old said, “I was thinking there is something wrong with the way I was treated and what women face.” But she never knew how to express this discontent and didn’t know if other women felt this way. “I felt lonely.”
Twitter changed that. A hashtag campaign attacking the guardianship system was launched. “Women started sharing stories, and sharing stories is the first step toward change. We felt we were not alone. It united us. I felt step by step, I could do something.”
She also realized that she was privileged because she had such a supportive husband. In a tweet about his arrest, she called him “the love of my life.”
For now he’s gone. Al Shehri said she cannot find any information about him or the charges he faces..
“It’s an incredible sense of powerlessness,” Hubbell-Staeble said. “It’s hard to understand in my core what it is to have no rights.”
She can’t imagine having one of her sons arrested without recourse to a lawyer or any due process. “It’s a very scary, horrible feeling, total powerlessness.”
Hubbell-Staeble and Al-Shehri said their biggest fear is that he will be forgotten.
She and his wife are intent that will not happen.
Hubbell-Staeble is trying to get a statement from the BGSU administration in support of its graduate. She spreading the word of al-Drees’ cause among her network of friends across the country. And her son Aidan, is reaching out to his political contacts.
Al-Shehri said her husband and the others arrested were part of the struggle. “This is the time for us to stand by their side and show how great they were by standing by our side.”
