Kholoud Bariedah

Kholoud Bariedah ( Arabic خلود بارعيدة, DMG Ḫulūd Bāriʿaida ; born 1985 ) is a Saudi Arabian writer who lives in asylum in Germany .

Life

When she was 20 and had a party with friends, a total of five, in her apartment in Jeddah , “without alcohol, without sex”, the religious police stormed the scene.

“It was a normal party, like any party here every weekend. We heard our music, so it was mixed between Saudi and Arabic and foreign music. "

Celebrating together for women and men who are not related is prohibited in Saudi Arabia. There was an indictment and a conviction, also because she had fought and fought after the arrival of the moral guards, who were not in uniform. Kholoud Bariedah was sentenced to four years in prison and 2,000 strokes of the stick. She attributes the particular punishment to the fact that she beat and insulted a religious man, which was considered an attack on the state, and that she had shown no remorse. She was serving her sentence in Mecca Women's Prison. Every two weeks, always on Friday, she received 50 strokes. Many of her fellow prisoners were not criminals but had fled domestic violence or sexual abuse. There were also mentally ill people who were a burden for the family, or women who had already served their sentence but could not be released because no male relative came to pick them up. She learned that shortening the term of imprisonment is possible for those who memorize the Koran. She did so, and her sentence was reduced to one and a half years and 600 strokes of the stick. She was released as a bride of the Koran .

After being released, she tried to lead a normal life, studied and started a business. In 2014, she wrote to friends on social media that she had become an atheist. When this was published in an Egyptian newspaper, she was in Istanbul. She feared being arrested again and did not return home. She came to Germany via Sweden and applied for asylum, which she received in 2015. She wrote a book about her detention and the conditions in the Arab women's prison.

Kholoud Bariedah advocates women's rights in Saudi Arabia, especially the abolition of legal guardians for adult women.

Book publication

• No tears for Allah. How I was sentenced by the virtue guards and escaped from Mecca Women's Prison . From the Arabic by Günther Orth. Knaur, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-426-21434-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marie Wildermann: From the party in den Frauenknast , Deutschlandfunk , April 10, 2018
2. ↑ Silvia Perdoni: Kholoud Bariedah “Every two weeks, always on Friday, I got 50 lashes” , Berliner Zeitung , January 27, 2018

Web links

• Kulturzeit , interview with the author