Waleed Abulkhair

Waleed Abulkhair took up the case of Samar Badawi, a Saudi woman who was detained in jail for seven months for not obeying her father who used to verbally and physically abuse her and did not allow her to marry. Waleed defended her in courts and launched a social media campaign to demand her release. Due to his relentless efforts, she was finally released from jail after some weeks. By this time the couple had fallen in love and eventually got married. His wife too has become a human rights activist.

He was born on 17 June 1979 in Jeddah, west of Saudi Arabia. He hails from a Hejazi family of judges and Imams of the Holy Mosque.

He was raised to be religious and memorized the Holy Quran by heart. He also developed a strong social conscience at a young age.

He studied at the King Abdu Aziz University from where he received his Bachelors Degree in 2003 in Arabic Language.

He also has a license from Shaikh Obaid Allah Al Afqani and was approved by the Teaching Board of the Holy Mosque in Madinah.

He embarked on a career in the legal profession in 2007 when he joined lawyer Essam Basrawi and started working in his office. By this time, he also became much interested in social activism and was disturbed by the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia.

He joined hands with several other activists and signed a reform petition in 2007 which demanded that the ruling government in Saudi Arabia transform from an absolute monarchy to a democratic system. The statement titled ‘Features of a Constitutional Monarchy’ requested a system where people would have the right to participate in free elections.

Being a lawyer, he defended several defendants, such as, Dr. Mossa bin Mohammed Al-Qarni, Dr. Saud al-Hashimi and Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Shumaimri who were Jeddah reformers arrested in February 2007.

Owing to his strong conscience, he defended those individuals who had been detained by the Saudi authorities without reasonable cause. In fact, the British Embassy in Saudi Arabia also hired him to defend one of its nationals detained by Saudi authorities.

Then he went to Jordan to further his education and received his Masters Degree in the Islamic law from Alyarmook University in 2009. His thesis, supervised by Dr. AbdulJaleel Zuhair Thamrah, was titled ‘Affinities and Differences in the Evidences and Reasons and Judgments: a Consolidating applicable and Comparative Study’.

He was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in 2013 in recognition for his strong and continuous struggle and characterized by selflessness in order to promote respect for human rights and civil rights for both men and women. His wife received the award on his behalf.