Just weeks before Saudi Arabia is set to lift its ban on women driving, the kingdom's state security says it has detained seven people who are accused of working with "foreign entities."
Rights activists say all those detained had worked in some capacity on women's rights issues, with five of those detained among the most prominent and outspoken women's rights campaigners in the country.
Pro-government media outlets have splashed their photos online and in newspapers, accusing them of betrayal and of being traitors.
The women activists had persistently called for the right to drive, but stressed that this was only the first step toward full rights.
For years, they also called for an end to less visible forms of discrimination, such as lifting guardianship laws that give male relatives final say on whether a woman can travel abroad, obtain a passport or marry.
Their movement was seen as part of a larger democratic and civil rights push in the kingdom, which remains an absolute monarchy where protests are illegal and where all major decision-making rests with the king and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
All five women are well-known activists who agitated for greater women's rights. Several of the women were professors at state-run universities and are mothers or grandmothers.
The Interior Ministry on Saturday did not name those arrested, but said the group is being investigated for communicating with "foreign entities," working to recruit people in sensitive government positions and providing money to foreign circles with the aim of destabilising and harming the kingdom.
The stunning arrests come just six weeks before Saudi Arabia is set to lift the world's only ban on women driving next month.
Last year, Prince Mohammed oversaw the arrests of dozens of writers, intellectuals and moderate clerics who were perceived as critics of his foreign policies.
He also led an unprecedented shakedown of top princes and businessmen, forcing them to hand over significant portions of their wealth in exchange for their freedom as part of a purported anti-corruption campaign.
Immediately after news of the arrests broke, pro-government Twitter accounts were branding the group as treasonous under an Arabic hashtag describing them as traitors for foreign embassies.
The pro-government SaudiNews50 Twitter account, with its 11.5 million followers, splashed images of those arrested with red stamps over their face that read "traitor" and saying that "history spits in the face of the country's traitors."
Activists told the AP the detainees were transferred from the capital, Riyadh, to the city of Jiddah for interrogations where the royal court has relocated for the month of Ramadan.
Australian Associated Press
