2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests

January–April 2011 Protests started with a 65-year-old man's self-immolation in Samtah, Jizan on 21 January Manal al-Sharif and Samar Badawi, active in the women to drive movement, announced that they had filed lawsuits against Saudi authorities in the Grievances Board, a non-Sharia court, because of the rejection of their driving licence applications. As of the end of June 2012, 100 Saudi women had started driving regularly since the June 2011 campaign launch. Women university students protested in King Khalid University in Abha in March and were attacked by security forces, leading to one death. Other university protests followed in Taibah University in Medina and Tabuk University in March and April. July–August 2012 In July 2012, Amnesty International protested in the United Nations Human Rights Council against legal persecution of Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) leaders. Ten female activists were detained in a Buraidah 14 July protest calling for political prisoners to be freed. Similar protests calling for prisoners to be freed and protesting against the Saudi government occurred in Buraidah on 23 July and in front of the Ministry of Interior near al-Ha'ir Prison and in Dammam in August. In July and August 2012, protests in the Qatif region intensified after Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was wounded in the leg and arrested by police on 8 July. Three men were killed in a protest on the evening of the arrest. Funerals and protests took place on 10 July, including chants calling for the downfall of the House of Saud. While detained, al-Nimr was tortured, had bruises on his face and broken teeth, and started a hunger strike. Protest organisers in al-Awamiyah stated their support for al-Nimr and insisted on the use of nonviolent resistance. Protester Mohamed al-Shakhouri was shot in the back and neck and arrested in a 26–27 July protest calling for al-Nimr's release. Further protests called for all Shia and Sunni detainees to be freed. A protester and a soldier were fatally shot in Qatif during a 3–4 August evening human rights protest, leading to several more protests. ==Aftermath==

2014 Qatif protests In early 2014, conflict between protesters and the security forces continued, with Qatif being "a militarised zone, surrounded by checkpoints and armoured vehicles". A Saudi journalist who had been documenting the protests for two years for the BBC left Saudi Arabia as she judged the situation "too risky for [her] to continue investigating". Al-Nimr was executed on or shortly before 2 January 2016, along with 46 others in a mass execution. His execution was condemned by Iran and Shiites throughout the Middle East, as well as by Western figures and Sunnis opposed to sectarianism. The Saudi government said the body would not be handed over to the family. In March 2017, after a long campaign of harassment, the Saudi security forces killed two members of Nimr family during a raid on a farm in eastern Saudi Arabia. Miqdad and Mohammad Al-Nimr were killed at a farm in Awamiyah, the Nimr family hometown. al-Nimr was very critical of the Saudi Arabian government, and called for free elections in Saudi Arabia. Protests in the Qatif region continued during 2017–19, with deaths of protestors and security forces. ==Casualties==

Deaths Others On 21 January 2011, an unidentified 65-year-old man died after setting himself on fire in the town of Samtah, Jizan. This was apparently the kingdom's first known case of self-immolation. On 10 September 2012, a Bangladeshi man was shot dead in the Al-Awamiyah district of eastern Saudi Arabia. Saudi police said that the Bangladeshi man was driving when his car was hit by bullets fired at two security patrol cars. However, an activist in Al-Awamiyah gave a different account of the incident, saying the man had been killed by gunfire when security forces stormed a house while trying to arrest one of the 23 wanted activist for organising protest in Qatif. ==Response==

Domestic On 10 February 2011, a Reuters report claimed that 10 intellectuals, human rights activists and lawyers came together to create the Umma Islamic Party – considered to be the first political party in Saudi Arabia since the 1990s – to demand the end of absolute monarchy in the country. On 6 March, the Saudi Arabian Council of Senior Scholars, headed by Grand Mufti Abd al-'Aziz al-Ashaikh, issued a fatwā (religious opinion) opposing petitions and demonstrations, declaring, "Therefore the council hereby reaffirms that only the reform and [counsel] that has its legitimacy is that which may bring welfare and avert the evil, whereas it is illegal to issue statements and take signatures for the purposes of intimidation and inciting the strife. ... reform should not be by demonstrations and other means and methods that give rise to unrest and divide the community. ... The Council affirms prohibition of the demonstrations in this country and [that] the legal method which realizes the welfare without causing destruction rests on the mutual advice." The fatwa included a "severe threat against internal dissent", Arrests and other repression About 30 to 50 people were arrested following 29 January Jeddah demonstration. On the same day, following about two weeks of small protests in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of the Interior warned that the "ban [on] all sorts of demonstrations, marches, sit-ins" imposed by Saudi law would be enforced. On 9 March, Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal stated that the government would not tolerate any street protests against it, while also saying that the "best way to achieve demands is through national dialogue". On 21 March, Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) co-founder Mohammed Saleh Albejadi (also Al-Bjady) was arrested in Buraidah by Mabahith, the internal security agency. ACPRA stated that the arrest was arbitrary, in violation of the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia and the Law of Criminal Procedures. Both the ACPRA Execution of Nimr al-Nimr One of the subsequent responses of the Saudi government was the arrest, conviction and subsequent execution of Nimr al-Nimr on 2 January 2016. International Governments • – On 12 July 2012, K.K. Dolgov, human rights representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed "great concern" about the July events in the Eastern Province. He stated, "We expect that the authorities of the Kingdom will undertake all necessary measures to settle the situation in its eastern regions, to avoid conflict, including confrontation on interconfessional basis, and to ensure the observance of conventional human rights, including the right for freedom of expression of opinion, peaceful demonstrations and freedom of associations, as it is prescribed by the law." During the week of 27 February, global stock prices fell as oil prices increased and silver reached a 30-year high price on stability concerns in the region. Regional stock market indices also fell on concern for Saudi stability. ==See also==