A women’s rights campaigner jailed since November for postings on social networking sites has heard Saudi justice accuse her of engaging in a “propaganda campaign”, according to documents seen by AFP on Wednesday.

Thirty-year-old Manahel al-Otaibi was arrested for posting messages in which she challenged laws that provide for the mandatory “guardianship” of women by men and forcing them to wear the traditional full-body abaya.

She was accused by the prosecution of conducting a “propaganda campaign to incite young women in Saudi Arabia to renounce the tenets of religious faith and rebel against the customs and traditions of Saudi society,” according to the filings.

In January, she was brought before judges who transferred her to a special criminal court, a jurisdiction created in 2008 to handle terrorism cases but generally used to try dissidents and human rights defenders.

If Ms. Otaibi is found guilty, she faces a serious prison sentence. The timeline of the proceedings against her is not clear so far.

Her sister Fouz, who has fled Saudi Arabia, is facing similar charges and could be jailed upon her return to her homeland.

The authorities have targeted “those who have influence and fight for women’s rights,” he recently told AFP.

This is a “glaring contradiction”, as in the kingdom “two states seem to coexist”: one promotes “the ‘Vision for 2030’, the other continues to apply the old rigid rules”, she explained, referring to a program of reforms in the Sunni monarchy in the context of which, among other things, the right of women to drive was recognized.

Saudi Arabia, often criticized by human rights groups for a brutal crackdown on dissent, imposed extremely heavy sentences in August and September 2022 on two women for reproducing critical messages on social networking sites.

London-based human rights group ALQST slammed the allegations against the al-Otaibi brothers, calling them “a new example of empty promises of reform” by the monarchy.

“Women in Saudi Arabia go to jail and face mockery of their own simply for asserting their rights,” said Lina al-Hathloul, an executive of the organization.