Dr Maryam Al-Qahtani

Saudi Arabia Expert — Human Rights, Political Situation & Asylum Cases

Expert at The Human Rights Experts, an international expert witness organisation.

We provide expert witness reports for asylum cases worldwide, covering human rights violations, political persecution, and systemic oppression. Our reports are trusted by lawyers, courts, and immigration authorities, in full compliance with procedural standards and tribunal requirements in the UK (CPR Part 35, Upper Tribunal PD, First-tier Tribunal IAC PD), USA (Federal Rules of Evidence), Canada, and the EU.

Occupation

• Country Witness Expert on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain
• Human Rights Specialist
• Legal Researcher and Academic Consultant
• Independent Journalist and Investigative Reporter on Human Rights

Expertise

I provide expert analysis on all five Refugee Convention grounds — political opinion, religion, ethnicity, membership of a particular social group (including LGBT and gender-based cases), and nationality — with a focus on the following countries:

Saudi Arabia: The Saudi authorities maintain an extensive apparatus of surveillance and repression targeting political dissidents, human rights defenders, women's rights activists, and online critics, with lengthy prison sentences, travel bans, and enforced disappearances employed against those who challenge state policy or the ruling family. Non-Sunni Muslim communities, particularly Shia citizens concentrated in the Eastern Province, face systematic discrimination in employment, education, and religious practice, and have been subjected to mass arrests, extrajudicial killings, and death sentences following protests. The male guardianship system, despite recent reforms, continues to restrict women's autonomy, and domestic violence and forced marriage remain widespread with limited legal recourse for victims. LGBT individuals face severe criminal penalties including flogging, imprisonment, and potential execution under Sharia-based statutes, and the Bidoon stateless population faces denial of basic rights including access to education, healthcare, and identity documentation.

Kuwait: Kuwaiti authorities restrict political expression through laws criminalizing criticism of the Emir, the judiciary, and relations with neighbouring states, and political opponents, tribal activists, and online critics have faced imprisonment, citizenship revocation, and exile. The Bidoon (stateless) community, numbering over 100,000 individuals, faces entrenched discrimination including denial of civil documentation, restrictions on employment, education, and healthcare, and periodic campaigns of arrest and deportation. Migrant workers, particularly women employed as domestic workers under the kafala system, are subjected to exploitation, physical and sexual abuse, and trafficking with inadequate legal protection. LGBT individuals face imprisonment under public morality laws and are subjected to forced medical examinations and societal violence, and Shia citizens experience discrimination in access to senior government and military positions.

Bahrain: Since the 2011 popular uprising, Bahraini security forces have conducted a sustained campaign of repression against political opposition figures, human rights activists, and Shia community leaders, employing arbitrary detention, torture, citizenship revocation, and coerced confessions to suppress dissent. The predominantly Shia majority population faces structural discrimination in housing, public employment, and political representation, with state-sponsored demographic engineering through naturalization of foreign Sunni nationals altering the sectarian balance. Women experience domestic violence and marital rape with limited legal protection, and family law provisions perpetuate gender inequality in divorce, custody, and inheritance matters. LGBT persons face criminal prosecution and social ostracism, and migrant workers are vulnerable to forced labour conditions and trafficking under a system that ties their legal residency to employer sponsorship.

Experience

• Provided expert witness reports and testimony in over 70 asylum and immigration cases before UK tribunals and US immigration courts, addressing political persecution, religious discrimination, and gender-based claims originating from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
• Submitted expert evidence to the Upper Tribunal and the Administrative Appeals Office on the treatment of political dissidents, Shia minorities, and women fleeing domestic violence and guardianship restrictions in the Gulf region.
• Authored country condition reports on security force practices, judicial independence, and the treatment of Bidoon populations in the Arabian Peninsula for legal practitioners and international protection bodies.
• Served as Associate Professor of Human Rights and Gulf Politics at King Abdulaziz University, with fieldwork spanning Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain focused on civil liberties, minority rights, and labour migration.
• Contributed to research projects with international human rights organisations examining arbitrary detention, torture, and citizenship-stripping as tools of political repression in the Gulf states. Expert member of The Human Rights Experts.

Full professional experience is available in the CV. Please email us to receive the detailed expert CV.

Publications

Available upon request and detailed in the expert CV.

Languages

• Arabic (Native)
• English (Fluent)

Religious Groups Expertise

All religious groups

Contact Email

info@thehuman-rights.com