Ensaf Haidar is a Saudi-Canadian human rights activist.
15 Facts About Ensaf Haidar
2.
Ensaf Haidar is the President of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom, that actively campaigns for freedom of speech and human rights awareness in the Arab World.
3.
Ensaf Haidar ran as the Bloc Quebecois candidate in Sherbrooke for the 2021 Canadian federal election but was defeated.
4.
Ensaf Haidar married Badawi in Saudi Arabia in 2002 and became active on his case after directing harsh criticism against the religious establishment through articles and media interviews, which angered radical Saudi clerics, including Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, Saudi religious scholar, and former member of the teaching body of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University.
5.
Ensaf Haidar then moved to Lebanon and lived in a predominantly Christian neighborhood.
6.
Ensaf Haidar noted that Saudi cleric Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak issued a fatwa against Badawi, accusing him of apostasy and incited the population to kill him.
7.
Ensaf Haidar left Saudi Arabia with her children as soon as the fatwa was issued for her husband, months before his arrest.
8.
Immediately after his arrest, Ensaf Haidar went to Sherbrooke, Canada, where she still lives with her children.
9.
Ensaf Haidar stated, "I was afraid for my life and the lives of my children, We moved to Lebanon, and then we moved to Canada immediately after his arrest, where we got a permit to establish a temporary residence".
10.
Ensaf Haidar agrees with her husband about the need to abolish the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, commonly known as the Mutawwa.
11.
In 2015, Ensaf Haidar accepted, on her husband's behalf, the Sakharov Prize for human rights awarded by the European Parliament.
12.
In 2016, Ensaf Haidar asked the Canadian government under Justin Trudeau to grant Canadian citizenship to her husband, but Trudeau rejected the suggestion because dual nationality is not recognized by Saudi Arabia.
13.
Ensaf Haidar holds a protest every Friday during Jumu'ah in front of Sherbrooke City Hall.
14.
Ensaf Haidar supported the right-wing populist People's Party of Canada upon its foundation in 2018.
15.
Ensaf Haidar is officially nominated as a candidate on August 10,2021.