Index condemns 34-year sentence for Salma al-Shehab

A Saudi women’s rights advocate is facing the longest ever prison term for a peaceful activist after tweeting support for prisoners of conscience.

Salma al-Shehab was studying for a PhD in oral and human health at the University of Leeds in the UK and was arrested on 15 January 2021 after going back to Saudi Arabia to spend the holiday with her husband and two children, Adam and Noah (above). It is understood she was planning to return to the UK with her family. Read the shocking story here. Photo: Instagram

Share your messages of support for author Salman Rushdie

Photo: Barry Batchelor/PA Archive/PA Images

The philosopher A C Grayling is one of many who have shared their messages of support for author Salman Rushdie, who remains in a critical condition with life-changing injuries after an attack at an event in the US on 12 August.

Graling writes, "Censorship is unacceptable at the best of times, but censorship by bullying, threats, physical violence and murder is an abomination. It is the resort of those who are insecure and intellectually immature.

"The attack on Salman Rushdie is an unforgivable example of what, if not resisted everywhere and always, would radically impoverish the world by silencing its art, thought and literature.

"The closed-minded seek not only to impose censorship but to frighten those who think differently from them into self-censorship. They must be resisted. Rushdie is on the front lines of this struggle: we owe him our gratitude and unequivocal support."

Read more messages and share your own here.