[3] At the time of her arrest in January 2021, al-Shehab was a final year dental medicine PhD student at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and was married with two children.
[4][1][5] Prior to moving to the UK, al-Shehab was reported to have worked as a dental hygienist and as a lecturer at Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh.
[9] While being held, al-Shehab alleged that her dignity had been "violated" – believed to be reference to physical or sexual assault – and that she had been pressured to say that she was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
[5] Appealing the decision, al-Shehab stated that she had retweeted the posts out of "curiosity" and to "observe others' viewpoints" and queried how her Twitter account, which had around 2000 followers, could be considered significant enough to cause terrorism.
[8] In the United States, The Washington Post published an editorial in response to al-Shehab's treatment calling bin Salman's promises to Biden with regards to improving Saudi Arabia's human rights record as "a farce".
[15] 35 human rights organisations released a statement calling on international pressure to be put on Saudi Arabia to prevent a further escalation in the "crackdown on free speech" in the country.