Nawal al-Hawsawi: The woman dubbed the 'Rosa Parks of Saudi Arabia'
“They say women shouldn’t have jobs, so to see a woman who can’t drive a car but who has a pilot’s license is unacceptable."
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Your support makes all the difference.A woman dubbed the “Rosa Parks” of Saudi Arabia says she will defy her critics by continuing to be an outspoken advocate of tolerance and diversity, despite receiving death threats.
Nawal al-Hawsawi has shot to fame in the country for her passionate work against racism and sexism. The outspoken marriage therapist, mental health counselor and qualified pilot refuses to conform to conservative expectations of what a black woman can do and has become something of a social media phenomenon, accruing 50,000 followers on Twitter.
Al-Hawsawi grew up in Mecca, before travelling to the US and marrying a white American man.
She told the BBC that it was upon returning to Saudia Arabia that she first began to experience social tensions due to her inter-racial marriage.
She says that she was called an offensive racial slur by a woman whilst at an event celebrating Saudi’s National Day. She took criminal action, eventually dropping the case when she received an apology from her abuser. She says she and the woman are now firm friends.
The case made headlines around Saudi Arabia and al-Hawsawi became a national icon speaking out against racism and harassment after local press compared her to US civil-rights activist Rosa Parks.
She subsequently launched an anti-racism campaign on Twitter, which was greeted with yet more racial slurs, sexism and even death threats.
She told the BBC that she would not bow to the backlash and that she has “only love” for her trolls.
“They didn’t like my tweets about marriage, equality and unity. They started a campaign publishing a picture of my husband and children and asked others to retweet it. It was very shocking.
“I represent everything that they hate, everything that they stand against. I’m a Saudi woman who married a foreigner. They’re anti-American. My husband is white, I’m black. They condemn interracial marriages.
“They say women shouldn’t have jobs, so to see a woman who can’t drive a car but who has a pilot’s license is unacceptable. And they don’t like that my message resonates with a lot of followers.”
She said of the abuse: “I learned a lot form Mandela, Martin Luther King and Gandhi. You don’t fight with hate. You can light a candle and stay positive. It just makes you stronger.”
Saudi Arabia is a very socially conservative country. Last month, women were allowed to vote for the first time ever when they took part in the country’s municipal elections.
Women cannot leave home without a chaperone, drive cars or open a bank account without their husband’s permission.
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