Blogger Khalid al-Nassir has been following the news since today’s afternoon regarding a second women’s demonstration in Qassim. The women were shortly moved to the governate headquarters for negotiation, which ended by detaining the mother of one the detainees. Reuters ran this story about the demonstration and reports that participants in the protest said the women carried placards bearing the image of King Abdullah and others saying “Ministry of Interior, try the detainees legally and openly”.

This is getting more and more intense. In a country where public demonstrations are illegal, two demonstrations during a short period like this should indicate that a significant change is probably taking place. Moreover, both demonstrations occurred in the most ultra-conservative part of the Kingdom. Some argue that these detainees deserve to be where they are, but I think that whether they were innocent or not, they have the right to a public fair trial immediately.