Calls for Saudi Dakar Rally boycott while women’s right to drive activist in prison

Campaigners say racers will pass jail holding Loujain al-Hathloul while kingdom ‘sportwashes’ its reputation

Supporters of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who campaigned for women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, have called for a boycott of the Dakar Rally for “sportswashing” the reputation of the conservative kingdom while Hathloul remains in prison.

Racers in the off-road competition – including 12 women – are due to pass within a few hundred metres of Riyadh’s Al-Ha’ir prison, where Hathloul is being held, on Tuesday.

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from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/38eTYWD