Following her husband's arrest, Haidar filed for asylum and was accepted by Canada to avoid her father-in-law claiming custody of their children.

"[6] 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] 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.

International bodies and human rights organizations demanded the release of Raif Badawi immediately out of respect for freedom of opinion.

In 2015, Haidar accepted, on her husband's behalf, the Sakharov Prize for human rights awarded by the European Parliament.

[10] By the time of the 2019 federal election, however, rumors circulated that she would run as a candidate for the Quebec sovereigntist Bloc Québécois, but she denied these affirmations.