Woman Islamist fights for rights in Oman

MUSCAT - For an Omani, Taiba Al Mawali is a very unusual woman. She is a militant human rights activist, unafraid to say what she thinks in a country where any criticism of the authorities is considered heresy.

"I always say what I think is good for the country -- and they don't like it, A fervent Islamist, Mawali dresses in black from head to toe with only her face showing. The 42-year-old has paid dearly for her beliefs -- she spent six months in prison for criticising the trial last year of 31 Islamists for having "plotted the overthrow of the government by force of arms... by forming an illegal underground organisation".

The Islamist affair has left its marks on Mawali, a mother of six who is married to a policeman, turning her life upside down. Mawali says she has been under surveillance by the security services since her membership of the Majlis Al Shura (consultative council) for six years between 1994 and 2000.

The council has no power, but she says she served on it as a way of improving the lot of Omanis, and she never hesitated to have a dig at government ministers. "Since then, they've had their eye on me," she said. When the authorities limited to two the number of mandates in the Majlis, she had to quit. Then she was told that her former employers at the information ministry no longer required her services.

She was eventually transferred to the ministry for municipalities, environment and hydraulics -- and given an empty office and no work. "I had nothing to do. And no computer. Maybe they were afraid I would surf the Internet," she said. "So I began to write."

It was at about this time that some Omanis launched an Internet discussion forum which quickly became known as "Sablah," a term meaning a place outside the home where people gather to talk. In a country where the media are strictly controlled by those in power, "Sablah" became an outlet for computer-owning Omanis to speak openly and from the heart. The authorities allowed the forum to go ahead, she said, because it enabled them to "know what people were thinking" and to finger those deemed anti-establishment. "I began by writing for Sablah on political and economic issues," Mawali said. Her pen-name was "bint Shams", or "daughter of the sun".

Then, at the beginning of 2005, things began to happen. Dozens of people suspected of being part of an Islamist plot were interrogated, and 31 were later charged. "I knew them personally. I had read their books and visited them in their homes. They love their country and his majesty," she said of Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

Their aim had merely been "to teach religion to people as it should be taught", she said, adding: "As you know, the whole world is afraid of Islam." Mawali claims the Omani authorities have changed "many things" in the teaching of Islam "in the cause of the Americans".

She saw the trial as a strong-arm message from the security services over the rise of Islam in a state that is very tolerant on a religious level. Attending the trial as an observer, Mawali continued to criticise both it and the country's leaders, in her writings on "Sablah" and in private phone conservations.

In June 2005 she was herself questioned for 3days, with the police wanting to know why she had spoken out in defence of the accused. She was even grilled by her interrogators for complaining in an SMS message about a rise in the price of diesel. When asked whether she wrote on "Sablah" and if so under what name, she told them immediately and without fear. Mawali said that she could have avoided a prison term if she had signed a document given to her by an interrogator.

Jail sentence

By doing so, she would have admitted belonging to a clandestine group and to having repented. It would also have meant she could no longer give interviews, and would have to stop her rights activities. "I threw it in his face," she said bitterly. Last July, Mawali was sentenced to 18 months for her Internet articles and for criticising the authorities. She appealed. But she was afraid of being thrown in jail before this was heard, and fled to a friend's house where she hid for 17 days. The day before the appeal hearing, she returned home "disguised as a man".

6 months in prison was the verdict, and she was immediately taken into custody. She was freed a few days before the full term of her sentence, and believes this was done to avoid any public demonstration of support upon her release. Paradoxically, Mawali was the main victim of the Islamists affair, even though she was not one of those originally accused. One diplomat believes she would certainly have been pardoned, as were the 31 convicted, had she asked. "Why would I have done that?" she bristled. "If you do something wrong, sure, you ask for a pardon."

According to Amnesty International, which called her a "prisoner of conscience", Mawali's name was put forward for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She continues to profess her devotion to Sultan Qaboos -- "his majesty is in my heart" -- and blames his advisers for hiding the truth from him. Mawali says prison made her "a stronger person". It also made her more determined to fight for human rights. "We want proper and free elections..." she said. "We have to have an independent judiciary." "Because I know my religion, I fight for the rights of man and for justice." Mawali is convinced she remains under constant surveillance.