Samar Badawi was born in 1981 in Saudi Arabia who rose to fame as Saudi activist in the early 2000s. Throughout her early life, she was abused by her father who allegedly physically beat her causing her to escape to a women’s shelter in 2008. Under the male guardianship system, her father was able to file a charge of disobedience against her but the charge was dismissed. The next year, her father filed the same charge against her and after Samar missed court appearances, a warrant was issued for her arrest. In 2010 she was arrested when she appeared in court an adhl case, which she had filed against her father because of his refusal to allow her to marry. She was release after more than six months in prison, after petitioning to the National Society for Human Rights and numerous pleas from NGOS who protested her illegal detention. In 2011, she participated in two major women’s rights movements across Saudi Arabia - the push for women’s suffrage and the campaign to reform driving laws in the country. Samar participated in the women’s driving campaign, driving around Jeddah and helping women who had been arrested for their participation in the movement. When she filed a lawsuit because her registration to vote was refused at voter registration centers, she became the first person to file a lawsuit for women’s suffrage in Saudi Arabia. In 2014, Samar traveled to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to speak about the conditions of Saudi human rights advocates, including her husband who had been detained at the time. When she returned to Saudi Arabia her passport was confiscated and when she tried to leave the country later that year for an EU conference, a travel ban was issued against her. Samar was arrested two years later, along with her 2 year old daughter, by the Saudi authorities who interrogated her before releasing her on bail. In 2018, she was arrested again, along with Nassima al-Sadah, another human rights advocate in Saudi Arabia. Calls for her release by the Canadian Minister Affairs say the expulsion of Canada’ Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, along with a freeze on trade between the countries. Samar was held in prison for nearly 3 years, on charges of disturbing public order, before being release on June 27, 2021.