{"id":7057,"date":"2012-03-13T12:59:19","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T19:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=7057"},"modified":"2012-03-13T12:59:19","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T19:59:19","slug":"saudi-protests-spread-to-different-cities-as-some-in-bahrain-talk-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=7057","title":{"rendered":"Saudi protests spread to different cities as some in Bahrain talk Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saudi protests spread to different cities<\/strong>
\n13 March, 2012 – AL-Abhbar<\/p>\n

Protests have spread to a number of cities in Saudi Arabia following the suppression of a demonstration held by female students at a university last Wednesday, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Cairo-based NGO released a statement saying the anger of students has spread and \u201cgone beyond [the city of] Abha to larger parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” where “several protests have taken place in the cities of Riyadh, al-Namas, Ar\u2019ar, Qatif, and al-Rabeeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tensions have been high since security forces cracked down on a group of female students demanding reform at the King Khaled University last week.<\/p>\n

Videos have emerged online of the protests, none of which can be independently verified .<\/p>\n

Saudi authorities responded to the protests with violence, killing one female student and injuring 54 others.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubsequently, popular anger escalated over this action…and the protests movement spread at the university level in the Kingdom,\u201d ANHRI’s statement read.<\/p>\n

In Taibah University in the city of Medina, one student was expelled for publicly criticizing the deteriorating conditions on campus during an open meeting with the director.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis emphasizes the cruelty of the majority of Saudi universities [towards their] students,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

In the eastern province of Qatif, one civilian was killed and several injured after security forces clashed with protesters demanding political reform.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Interior released a statement in which it vowed to address \u201cacts of terrorism\u201d and described the protesters as \u201ca deluded minority.\u201d<\/p>\n

ANHRI accused the Ministry of Interior of trying to portray the protests as sectarian as many of the kingdom’s Shias live in the oil-rich province.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly dialogue will work out with this social anger, not the repression and violence that characterize the attitude of the Saudi government with its citizens. The Saudi government has to learn the lesson that several Arab countries have taught to their rulers,” the ANHRI statement said.<\/p>\n

“The demands of justice and dignity in Saudi Arabia have to be met with change in policies, basing them on the values of freedom and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public display of dissent is rare in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom has clamped down on any signs of unrest, fearing the Arab revolutions sweeping the region might endanger its autocratic rulers.<\/p>\n

Saudi forces entered Bahrain last March to crush a pro-democracy uprising there, but has itself largely avoided the Arab Spring, save for sporadic protests in Qatif.<\/p>\n

…more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Saudi protests spread to different cities 13 March, 2012 – AL-Abhbar Protests have spread to a number of cities in Saudi Arabia following the suppression of a demonstration held by female students at a university last Wednesday, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said on Tuesday. The Cairo-based NGO released a statement saying more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1062],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7058,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions\/7058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}