The following is a timeline of the

2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests The protests in Saudi Arabia were part of the Arab Spring that started with the 2011 Tunisian revolution. Protests started with a self-immolation in Samtah and Jeddah street protests in late January 2011. Protests against anti-Shia discriminatio ...

from May to December 2011. The 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests are a series of ongoing protests taking place in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

, which began in January 2011, influenced by concurrent protests in the region. In May and June, motivated by the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

Manal al-Sharif Manal was an Argentine rock group. Together with Almendra and Los Gatos, they are considered founders of Argentine rock.women's right-to-drive campaign, with the main action to take place on 17 June. Al-Sharif drove a car in May and was detained on 22 May and from 23‒30 May. Other women also drove cars, including actress Wajnat Rahbini, who was arrested after driving in Jeddah on 4 June and released a day later. From 17 June to late June, about seventy cases of women driving were documented. In late September, Shaima Jastania was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving in Jeddah, shortly after King Abdullah announced women's participation in the 2015 municipal elections and eligibility as Consultative Assembly members. King Abdullah cancelled the sentence. Protests in the Qatif region continued in October; police shot live ammunition at protestors. The protestors called for Eastern Province to have its own constitution and legislative assembly, and for their association

Society for Development and Change The Society for Development and Change ( ar, جمعية التنمية والتغيير) is a Saudi Arabian human rights non-governmental organisation that became active in 2011, campaigning for equal human rights for Shia in Eastern Province, Sau ...

to be legally registered. In late November, Nasser al-Mheishi, Ali al-Felfel, Munib al-Sayyed al-'Adnan and Ali Abdullah al-Qarairis were shot dead by security forces in the Qatif region in successive protests and funerals. Hundreds of people protested in Riyadh and Buraidah in December, calling for the release or trial of prisoners.

May

Street protests in and near

Qatif Qatif or Al-Qatif ( ar, ٱلْقَطِيف ''Al-Qaṭīf'') is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the ...

and the beginning of a women's driving campaign took place in May 2011. During the second week of May 2011, a woman inspired by the

, Najla Hariri, started driving a car in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

despite a ''de facto'' ban on women driving. She stated, "Before in Saudi, you never heard about protests. utafter what has happened in the Middle East, we started to accept a group of people going outside and saying what they want in a loud voice, and this has had an impact on me." On 21 May,

Manal al-Sharif Manal was an Argentine rock group. Together with Almendra and Los Gatos, they are considered founders of Argentine rock.women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

activist who helped start a women's right to drive campaign, was detained for six hours after a video showing her driving in Khobar in the Eastern Province, filmed by another women's rights activist,

Wajeha al-Huwaider Wajeha al-Huwaider ( ar, وجيهة الحويدر) (born 1962 or 1963) is a Saudi activist and writer, who played key roles in the anti male-guardianship and women to drive campaigns during the early twenty-first century. She is a co-founder ...

, gained widespread popularity on YouTube and Facebook. Al-Sharif was detained again from 22 May to 30 May, when she was released on bail, on the conditions of returning for questioning if requested, not driving and not talking to the media. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

associated the long duration of al-Sharif's detention with Saudi authorities' fear of protests. On 23 May, another woman was detained for driving a car. She drove with two women passengers in

Ar Rass Rass (also spelled Ar Rass, or Al-Ras; ar, الرس) is a Saudi Arabian City, located in Al Qassim Province. It lies southwest of Buraydah, the capital of the province and north of Riyadh, the national capital. Arrass is the largest city in A ...

and was detained by traffic police in the presence of the religious police (CPVPV). She was released after signing a statement that she would not drive again. In reaction to al-Sharif's arrest, several more Saudi women published videos of themselves driving during the following days.

June

The women's driving campaign continued in June. Wajnat Rahbini, a Saudi actress famous in the Arab world for playing in the satirical comedy ''

Tash ma Tash ''Tash Ma Tash'' (1993–2011) ( ar, طاش ما طاش) ("No Big Deal" in EnglishBradley, John R. ''Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis''. ''Palgrave Macmillan''. 19 May 2005. 7.) was a popular Saudi Arabian satirical comedy that ra ...

'', broadcast annually during

Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...

, drove her car "in defiance of a long-standing ban on female driving" on 4 June in Jeddah. She was detained after exiting her car and released the following day without bail. On 17 June, the main date for the women's driving campaign, about 30 to 40 women drove cars in towns around Saudi Arabia, including Maha al-Qahtani and

Eman al-Nafjan Eman al-Nafjan is a Saudi Arabian blogger and women's rights activist. She was detained by Saudi authorities in May 2018 along with Loujain al-Hathloul and five other women's rights activists in what Human Rights Watch interpreted as an attempt ...

in Riyadh, and other women in Jeddah and Dammam. When she drove for a second time the same day, al-Qahtani was given a ticket for driving without a Saudi Arabian licence. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' interpreted the lack of arrests as a deliberate change in government policy, stating, "police appeared to be under orders not to intervene."

October

On 4 October, there was a firefight between unidentified gunmen and Saudi security personnel in

, injuring between 11 police and at least 3 civilians. The government blamed "a foreign country", presumably

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, for the unrest. This confrontation grew out of a conflict in Awamiyah, a predominantly Shi'a town in the Qatif district, when security forces arrested a 60-year-old man to force his son, who was active in a movement to force Saudi Arabia to withdraw from Bahrain, to give himself up.

Molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammab ...

were thrown at the police station. The protestors want a constitution and an independent legislative assembly for the Eastern Province and for the

to be legally registered.

November

On 20, 21 and 23 November, five people, Nasser al-Mheishi, Ali al-Felfel, Munib al-Sayyed al-'Adnan and Ali Abdullah al-Qarairis were killed and six others were wounded by police bullets during a protest in

, the funeral for al-Muhaishi, and a follow-up protest for the deaths of al-Muhaishi and al-Filfil.

December

On 16 December, about 100 people, mostly women, protested in Riyadh and Buraidah demanding that prisoners be released or tried. About 50 people were arrested in the two cities. Many were released by 23 December. On 23 December, a nationwide mosque

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

protest again took place in cities including Riyadh and Jeddah, calling for the release of Dr. Yusuf al-Ahmad, imprisoned after having sent a Twitter message in support of prisoners' families. The protestors said that there are 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia. Thirty men and thirty women among the Riyadh protestors were arrested. Most were released by 28 December.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline of the 2011-2013 Saudi Arabian protests (May-December 2011) Timelines of the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests 2011 in Saudi Arabia