MIDDLE EAST (Washington Insider Magazine) – Princess Basmah bint Saud Al Saud, 57,and her daughter Souhoud Al Sharif, 30 were released on January 6, 2022, after being arrested in March 2019. As the pair was attempting to depart Saudi Arabia for Switzerland for medical appointments, they were arrested and placed in a high security prison: Al-Ha’ir, outside the capital city of Riyadh. It is believed that several high-profile dissidents are also being kept there. No charges were ever brought against the mother or her daughter, according to her attorney Henri Estramant.
She was not allowed contact with any other family members for an extended period of time after the arrest. Princess Basmah appealed via Twitter to her cousin, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for release in May 2020.
Her pleas were ignored, and she was barred from contacting her family after May 2021. During her imprisonment she claims she was denied medical attention as well as legal representation according to ALQST, a Saudi human rights organization, which Princess Basmah supported.
Princess Basmah is the daughter of King Saud, former monarch of Saudi Arabia, born in the last month of his reign, the youngest of 115 children. Basmah only saw her father twice when she was five years old, before he died the same year. Her mother took her to live in Beirut, Lebanon, until the Lebanese civil war broke out.
At that time, they moved among several European capitals and the United States, where she received her education at various universities. She received a Sociology from the National American University, and two years later earned a MSc Degree in Social Economics and Political Science.
She was married to a prominent Saudi citizen from the Al Sharif family. They had five children together, but were divorced in 2007. The princess excelled in business and, as a single mother went on to found several restaurants and catering businesses in Saudi Arabia, as well as a media firm, Media Ecco. She has also been a critic of public policy and human rights issues in her country, which could have made her a target of the reigning monarch.
The princess has also advocated for loosening up harsh restrictions and regulations regarding women’s rights under Sharia law. She had called for changes to the constitution, education system, social services, divorce laws, and the practice of prohibiting women from going out in public without a male chaperone.
In 2014, through a London research center (GURA), the Fourth Way Law was registered and recorded by the European Union. Princess Basmah was recognized for her efforts in the international monitoring of human rights and developments, and establishing training centers to promote Fourth Way values on a global stage.
Several countries, such as America and England, have been considering recommendations from the organization when making important international decisions. After delivering an important lecture at Cambridge in 2012, several sections of the Fourth Way Law were implemented by the British government.
While she is grateful to be home again, Princess Basmah is taking time to reconnect with her family, to rest and recuperate. She is unsure, however, if she will be allowed to travel abroad to receive the medical treatment she was seeking when first arrested.
