The Most Famous
SOCIAL ACTIVISTS from Saudi Arabia
This page contains a list of the greatest Saudi Arabian Social Activists. The pantheon dataset contains 538 Social Activists, 4 of which were born in Saudi Arabia. This makes Saudi Arabia the birth place of the 39th most number of Social Activists behind Spain and Morocco.
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Saudi Arabian Social Activists of all time. This list of famous Saudi Arabian Social Activists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Mukhtar al-Thaqafi (622 - 687)
With an HPI of 66.20, Mukhtar al-Thaqafi is the most famous Saudi Arabian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages on wikipedia.
Al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd al-Thaqafi (Arabic: الْمُخْتَار ٱبْن أَبِي عُبَيْد الثَّقَفِيّ, romanized: al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ʿUbayd al-Thaqafī; c. 622 – 3 April 687) was a pro-Alid revolutionary based in Kufa, who led a rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate in 685 and ruled over most of Iraq for eighteen months during the Second Fitna. Born in Ta'if, Mukhtar moved to Iraq at a young age and grew up in Kufa. Following the death of Husayn ibn Ali, a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, at the hands of the Umayyad army in the Battle of Karbala in 680, he allied with the rival caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca, but the alliance was short-lived. Mukhtar returned to Kufa where he declared Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, a son of caliph Ali (r. 656–661) and brother of Husayn, the mahdi and the imam, and called for the establishment of an Alid caliphate and retaliation for Husayn's killing. He took over Kufa in October 685, after expelling its Zubayrid governor, and later ordered the execution of those involved in the killing of Husayn. Hostile relations with Ibn al-Zubayr ultimately led to Mukhtar's death by the forces of the Zubayrid governor of Basra, Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, following a four-month siege. Although Mukhtar was defeated, his movement would have far-reaching consequences. After his death, his followers formed a radical Shia sect, later known as the Kaysanites, who developed several novel doctrines and influenced later Shia ideology. Mukhtar raised the social status of mawali (non-Arab local converts to Islam) and they became an important political entity. The mawali and Kaysanites went on to play a significant role in the Abbasid Revolution sixty years later. Mukhtar was important as an early proponent of treating Arab and non-Arab Muslims on an equal footing. He is a controversial figure among Sunnis; condemned by them as a false prophet, but revered by the Shia because of his support for the Alids. Modern historians' views range from regarding him as a sincere revolutionary to an ambitious opportunist.
2. Nimr al-Nimr (1959 - 2016)
With an HPI of 53.58, Nimr al-Nimr is the 2nd most famous Saudi Arabian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 51 different languages.
Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr (21 June 1959 – 2 January 2016), commonly referred to as Sheikh Nimr, was a Shia sheikh from Al-Awamiyah in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province whose arrest and execution was widely condemned, including by governments and human rights organizations. He was popular among youth and critical of the Saudi Arabian government, calling for free elections in Saudi Arabia. He was arrested by Saudi authorities in 2006, at which time al-Nimr said he was beaten by the Mabahith. In 2009, he criticised Saudi authorities and suggested that if Saudi Shia rights were not respected, the Eastern Province should secede. Saudi authorities responded by arresting al-Nimr and 35 others. During the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests, al-Nimr called for protestors to resist police bullets using "the roar of the word" rather than violence. The Guardian described al-Nimr as having "taken the lead in [the] uprising." On July 8, 2012, Saudi police shot al-Nimr in the leg and arrested him in what police described as an "exchange of gunfire." Saudi police fired into a crowd of thousands who protested al-Nimr's arrest, killing two men, Akbar al-Shakhouri and Mohamed al-Felfel. Al-Nimr started a hunger strike and allegedly was tortured. The Asharq Center for Human Rights expressed concern for al-Nimr's health during his hunger strike on August 21, calling for international support to allow access by family, lawyer and human rights activists. On October 15, 2014 al-Nimr was sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court for "seeking 'foreign meddling' in Saudi Arabia, 'disobeying' its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces." His brother, Mohammad al-Nimr, was arrested on the same day for tweeting information about the death sentence. Al-Nimr was executed on or shortly before January 2, 2016, along with 46 others. His execution was condemned by Iran and Shiites throughout the Middle East, as well as by Western figures and Sunnis opposed to sectarianism. The Saudi government said the body would not be handed over to the family. In March 2017, after a long campaign of harassment, the Saudi security forces killed two cousins of Nimr family during a raid on a farm in eastern Saudi Arabia. Miqdad and Mohammad Al-Nimr were killed at a farm in Awamiyah, the Nimr family hometown.
3. Loujain al-Hathloul (1989 - )
With an HPI of 36.11, Loujain al-Hathloul is the 3rd most famous Saudi Arabian Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 42 different languages.
Loujain al-Hathloul (Arabic: لجين الهذلول Lujjayn al-Hadhlūl; born 31 July 1989) is a Saudi women's rights activist, a social media figure, and political prisoner. She has been arrested on several occasions for defying the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. In May 2018, she and several prominent women's rights activists were kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and deported to Saudi Arabia where they were charged with "attempting to destabilise the kingdom." Her ex-husband, Saudi stand-up comedian Fahad al-Butairi, had also been forcibly returned from Jordan to the Kingdom and was under arrest. For her women's rights activism, Al-Hathloul has been awarded the 2019 PEN America /Barbey Freedom to Write Award and the 2020 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. She is one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2019". She was released from prison on 10 February 2021, but lives under a travel ban.
4. Samar Badawi (1981 - )
With an HPI of 31.49, Samar Badawi is the 4th most famous Saudi Arabian Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Samar bint Muhammad Badawi (Arabic: سمر بدوي; born 28 June 1981) is a Saudi Arabian human rights activist. She and her father filed court cases against each other. Badawi's father accused her of disobedience under the Saudi Arabian male guardianship system and she charged her father with adhl—"making it hard or impossible for a person, especially a woman, to have what she wants, or what's rightfully hers; e.g, her right to marry" according to Islamic jurisprudence—for refusing to allow her to marry. After Badawi missed several trial dates relating to the charge, an arrest warrant was issued for her, and Badawi was imprisoned on 4 April 2010. In July 2010, Jeddah General Court ruled in Samar Badawi's favor, and she was released on 25 October 2010, and her guardianship was transferred to an uncle. There had been a local and international support campaign for her release. The Saudi NGO Human Rights First Society described Badawi's imprisonment as "outrageous illegal detention". Badawi filed a Grievances Board lawsuit against the Ministry of Municipal and Rural affairs for the rejection of her registration for the 2011 municipal elections. She participated in the 2011–2012 women driving campaign by driving regularly since June 2011 and helping women drivers with police and court procedures. In November 2011, she and Manal al-Sharif filed charges in the Grievances Board against the Saudi Arabian General Directorate of Traffic for rejecting their applications for drivers' licences. On 8 March 2012, Badawi was given an award by the United States Department of State for her contributions to women's rights. In 2018, she was arrested by the Saudi authorities again. Canada's request for her immediate release sparked a major diplomatic dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Pantheon has 4 people classified as social activists born between 622 and 1989. Of these 4, 2 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living social activists include Loujain al-Hathloul and Samar Badawi. The most famous deceased social activists include Mukhtar al-Thaqafi and Nimr al-Nimr. As of April 2022, 1 new social activists have been added to Pantheon including Samar Badawi.
