A Response to Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud

First, the Washington Post article might be the most eloquently written letter written by two people who uphold women’s tennis values. I strongly wish FIFA would have stood firm and eloquent. 

Here is the article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/24/evert-navratilova-wta-saudi-arabia/ 

While this response from Reema bint Bandar Al Saud

Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States sounded like the whining of a child who didn’t get what they wanted, with the added insinuation that if they give you what you want, you will welcome them back. 

How Saudi of you. 

Saudi is not perfect, fine. I’ll take that. No country is perfect, fine. I’ll take that. But the difference is there are no proper mechanisms, laws, safety nets, due process, etc. The laws are so vague as to allow for anything on purpose. The country is very literally a maximum security prison for women who don’t have the luxury of a kind guardian—the ones who do like it as you do show up in all the propaganda we see daily. 

You say a woman has the right to travel without permission, but will a border officer let her pass if her guardian says no? No! The Absher App made sure of that. 

Will a police officer intervene with a father beating his daughter if she complains? No! These are considered “Family matters”. Women are killed and their bodies thrown in the desert for dishonorable behavior. But you know about that. I speak to women in dire situations every single day. Maybe you should as well. Have a care for the women you claim to represent.

The Washington Post article touched on the LBGTQ community and how it’s a sin punishable by death, but you skipped that in your response; how convenient for you. 

For a country that lives under a dome of secrecy, it’s easy to say things like “Get your facts straight.” I am not sorry to say that nowadays, it’s harder for you to hide. We see you. The Saudi Women, see you.

Where is your transparency? Do you want us to believe you? Well, stop locking up and killing journalists who strayed from your specially designed rat maze to keep us from seeing what you don’t want us to see. And don’t say Jamal was an aberration because every activist and journalist knows that’s not the case. He’s just an example of bad planning. 

Where are the independent investigative teams refused the right to look into anything? Followed around and pointed to look here instead of there. All your eluded politically formed statements of change mean nothing when you hide everything. 

If you cared about women, you would look beyond the fact that you can do as you like, but so many others cannot. Look at the girls being held like Salma Al-Shehab for baseless charges. If women’s rights were advancing, why lock up any female activist who dares question the system? Like Loujain Alhathloul, she drove out and asked for an end to Male Guardianship, yet she is still on a travel ban; why? 

Every women’s rights activist should be pardoned and given an apology for the torture they experienced at the hands of your superiors. Do you still want to represent them? They should be allowed to travel, but you’re afraid of that. Why? Oh, wait, we Saudis fear nothing; well, then why keep them locked up and keep silencing them? 

If you even wrote this letter, I applaud you for being your father’s daughter. 

I pray you do care, but remember that with great power comes great responsibility, and you are not living up to yours. 

Elise Evans Martin

Proud Dissident of Saudi Arabia | Female Women's Rights Activist | Author | Speaker