A Summons for Samar Badawi: Updated 2/15

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Earlier today, Saudi Arabian human rights activist Samar Badawi was questioned by authorities with that nation’s Bureau of Investigation and was allowed to leave after the interview.

On her Twitter page, she reported that the Bureau wanted to ask her about her human rights activities:

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A Summons for Samar Badawi

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Saudi Arabia’s Bureau of Investigation yesterday contacted Samar Badawi (above), the wife of Waleed Abulkhair and sister of Raif Badawi, and asked her to report to the Bureau at 10:00 a.m. February 15. She reports that no reason for the summons has been given.

On January 12, 2016, she was arrested and released on bail one day later. She was charged with operating her husband Waleed’s Twitter account.

Samar Badawi is the sister of Raif Badawi, the human rights writer who was convicted of apostasy and other charges and sentenced to ten years in prison and 1000 lashes with a cane. Waleed is Raif Badawi’s lawyer as well as his brother-in-law, and he is in prison for his human rights advocacy as well.

Because no reason for the summons has been offered, Samar of course can not prepare for the questioning. This is a common form of judicial harassment in nations that use a judiciary as a tool to intimidate.

I will post an update when information becomes available tomorrow. This is Samar Badawi’s Tweet about the summons:
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Chaucer and Valentine’s Day

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The Invention of Love …

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Because of the rampant commercialism associated with the holiday, Valentine’s Day is considered a “Hallmark holiday,” a day selected by a blindfolded intern at Hallmark HQ and pegged as one we consumers are told to celebrate by spending. It isn’t.

In the grocery store last week, the center of which is holiday-red right now and overstuffed with heart-shaped balloons and streamers, as if the store manager himself demanded a ticket-tape parade for Cupid, I walked past a fellow shopper who, shaking her head, declared out loud, “Valentine’s Day! Already?” because that is what we say when we view holiday decorations in stores nowadays. (Each reminder of time’s passage is responded to as a newly experienced emotional trauma in our culture, each time we encounter it.) It was February 10, the decorations had been up in this particular store since January 2, and there was no hint of irony in the person’s exclamation.

Starting in the late 1700s, publishers started to print and sell Valentine’s Day-oriented books, usually guides for young men to use in composing their love notes. On this much, most cultural historians seem to agree. The disagreements begin with who Valentine might have been and why February 14 is his feast day and extend to the question about what any of this has to do with chalky heart-shaped candies and smooching.
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