“We should not be followers of traditions that go against human rights…we are human beings and we make traditions.” (Malala Yousafzai)
It is now over four years since the takeover of Newcastle United by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and since then North East Bylines has been reviewing what life is like for those living in Saudi Arabia. The predominant rhetoric is that this is a place where human rights are disrespected under a murderous regime which starts illegal wars. But is all that really true? Let’s see what has been happening and look at the hard evidence.
How has Saudi Arabia been reported in recent weeks?
Parts I-28 of this survey have covered the period from 7 October 2021 to the end of December last year. So, what has been happening in January 2026?
It was reported on 2 January that Saudi Arabia had executed 356 people in 2025 (according to an AFP tally). This set a new yearly record for the number of executions carried out in the country.
According to analysts, the sharp rise is due to Riyadh’s (Saudi Arabia’s capital city) ongoing “war on drugs,” which launched a few years ago. Many of those now facing execution were arrested as part of such efforts.
The AFP was said to have reported that “official government data show that 243 of the executions in 2025 were linked to drug-related offences”.
American influence
An opinion piece on the issue argued on 4January that Trump’s ‘America First’ policy was “putting human rights last”.
In a speech in Riyadh in May 2025, Trump demonstrated a tectonic shift in the American approach to international human rights. Trump lavished praise on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman his host- a man who American intelligence believes ordered the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Kashoggi, a Washington Post journalist. Trump was said to have “declared that Saudi Arabia’s success came not from lectures by “Western interventionalists” on “how to live and how to govern your own affairs,” but from doing things “the Arabian way”. It is “God’s job to sit in judgment,” he added, and “my job, to defend America”.
It was further noted that two weeks after this speech by Trump, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth delivered the same message in Singapore, stating: “the United States is not interested in the moralistic and preachy approach to foreign policy of the past. … We respect you, your traditions, and your militaries”.
Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia
It was reported on 11 January that four countries were backsliding on women’s rights, having previously made progressive reforms. One of those countries is Saudi Arabia.
The story noted that “Saudi Arabia has presented itself as reforming its guardianship system, but the reality reveals a more complicated picture between 2023 and 2025. While the kingdom did eliminate some restrictions in 2019, allowing women over twenty-one to obtain passports and travel without male permission, significant guardianship requirements remain deeply embedded in Saudi law and practice”.
While the reforms have been widely publicized, they have not extended to the private sector. Consequently, if employers want to hire women, they routinely require male guardian consent, particularly in sectors deemed “inappropriate” for female workers.
It is also noted that “legal testimony continues to value a woman’s word as half that of a man’s in many court proceedings, and guardianship practices are enforced through social pressure even when not explicitly required by law. Activists who pushed for greater reforms, including Loujain al-Hathloul, faced imprisonment, and several remain under travel bans as of early 2025, sending a clear message about the limits of acceptable advocacy”.
Human rights abuses
Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch commented: “The close of 2025 crystallized a horrifying trend in Saudi Arabia with a record surge in executions for the second consecutive year. Governments should immediately press Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authorities to halt all executions”.
It was reported on 26 January that the High Court in England had ordered Saudi Arabia to pay more than £3m to a London-based dissident, having concluding that the Saudi regime had directed a physical attack against him and infected his phone with spyware.
It was ruled by a judge that Ghanem al-Masarir, a former Saudi human rights activist and citizen, had a right to compensation for the psychiatric harm he had suffered after discovering in 2018 that his phone was hacked.
It was further noted that “the court accepted that Saudi authorities infected the phone with Pegasus, a notorious spyware acquired from Israeli tech company NSO Group. The court also concluded that a physical attack suffered by Masarir outside the Harrods department store in West London in August 2018 was directed by Riyadh, for which he was also entitled to compensation. The total damages awarded by the court, to be paid for by the Saudi state, are £3,025,663”.
Also on 26 January, a mother wrote about the pain that she felt at losing her son, Essam al-Shazly who was said to be the latest foreign national to die in what was described as “a ‘horrifying’ surge in capital punishment under the rule of Mohammed bin Salman”.
How do we go forward?
Perhaps we ought to remember the words of Martin Luther King Jr, who visited Newcastle on 13 November 1967, to receive an honorary degree at Newcastle University. King once said: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. Shouldn’t we all follow King’s wise words with regards to the brutality of the Saudi regime?
