Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi is a Saudi Arabian historian, author and women's rights activist.
16 Facts About Hatoon al-Fassi
1.
2.
Hatoon al-Fassi is an associate professor of women's history at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, where she has been employed since 1989 and at the International Affairs Department at Qatar University.
3.
Hatoon al-Fassi was arrested in late June 2018 as part of a crackdown on women's rights activists and was released almost a year later, in early May 2019.
4.
Hatoon al-Fassi is a member of the traditional Sufi Al-Fassi family from Makkah, that descends from the Sharifi house of Muhammad that belongs to the Hassani Idrissi branch of this line.
5.
Hatoon al-Fassi is thus a direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
6.
Hatoon al-Fassi's mother is Sheikha Samira Hamed Dakheel, who belongs to the branch of the Hijazi tribe of Harb that resided in Jeddah.
7.
Hatoon al-Fassi has a brother, Sheikh Muhammad Ajwad al-Fassi, a lawyer and a sister, Hawazan Ajwad al-Fassi, a poet.
8.
Hatoon al-Fassi obtained undergraduate degrees in history in 1986 and 1992 from King Saud University and a PhD in ancient women's history from the University of Manchester in 2000.
9.
Hatoon al-Fassi has not been allowed to teach at KSU since 2001.
10.
In 2007, Hatoon al-Fassi published her research into the status of women in the pre-Islamic Arabian kingdom of Nabataea as the book Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea.
11.
Hatoon al-Fassi found that women were independent legal persons able to sign contracts in their own name, in contrast to women in modern Saudi Arabia, who require male guardians to sign contracts.
12.
Since early 2011, Hatoon al-Fassi has participated in the "Baladi" women's rights campaign, which called for women to be allowed to participate in the September 2011 municipal elections.
13.
Hatoon al-Fassi stated that women's participation in the 2011 election "would show that Saudi Arabia is serious about its claims of reform".
14.
Hatoon al-Fassi described the authorities' decision not to accept women's participation in the election was "an outrageous mistake that the kingdom is committing".
15.
Hatoon al-Fassi's arrest took place days before the lifting of the Saudi ban on women driving.
16.
Hatoon al-Fassi has been featured and interviewed in many documentaries in major national, regional and international media on issues including Saudi women, history, archaeology, municipal elections.