Saudi Arabia has arrested women's rights activists who pushed for reforms now lauded (AFP)
Prominent campaigners behind the successful push to end Saudi Arabias ban on women driving were among five people arrested by Saudi authorities, rights activists said on Friday.
According to Prisoners of Conscience, a group that campaigns for detained government critics, Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza Al-Yousef and Iman Al-Nafjan were among those picked up by authorities.
Their arrests come only a month before the decades-old driving ban is lifted as part of reforms pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has tried to project a more progressive image of the country.
But his reforms have also been accompanied by an apparent crackdown on dissent against critics, ranging from Islamist clerics to some of the very women who campaigned for years to end the ban.
One of the rights activists, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the latest arrests were tied to advocacy for women driving: "They detained them because they do not want them to publicly claim success."
Government spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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The two women drivers blazing the trail for freedom of movement in Saudi
Women will be allowed to drive starting on 24 June. In prepration, authorities have opened driving schools, instituted new regulations and hired women traffic police.
Activists and analysts say, however, that the government is keen to avoid rewarding activism, which is forbidden in the absolute monarchy, and seems determined not to antagonise sensitivities of religious conservatives opposed to modernisation.
Hathloul was imprisoned for 73 days in 2014 for defying the driving ban and was again detained in 2017.
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