Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi (هتون أجواد الفاسي) is a Saudi Arabian historian, author[3][4] and women's rights activist.
[11] She was arrested in late June 2018[12] as part of a crackdown on women's rights activists[13] and was released almost a year later, in early May 2019.
[18] Her mother is Sheikha Samira Hamed Dakheel,[citation needed] who belongs to the branch of the Hijazi tribe of Harb that resided in Jeddah.
[17] Al-Fassi was raised in a family that encouraged her to think independently of school and media ideas about women's rights.
[8] She described the authorities' decision not to accept women's participation in the election was "an outrageous mistake that the kingdom is committing".
She stated, "We are putting all the pressure that is in our power, bearing in mind that it is not that easy in a country such as Saudi Arabia where freedom of assembly is not allowed and civil society is not yet fully-fledged.
[12] On 16 January 2019, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Noam Chomsky and 213 other academics sent an appeal to King Salman of Saudi Arabia describing al-Fassi's academic and women's rights achievements and calling for her and the other imprisoned women's rights activists to be freed.
[25] She has been featured and interviewed in many documentaries in major national, regional and international media on issues including Saudi women, history, archaeology, municipal elections.