2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests

The protests in Saudi Arabia were part of the Arab Spring that started with the 2011 Tunisian revolution. Protests started with a self-immolation in Samtah and Jeddah street protests in late January 2011. Protests against anti-Shia discrimination followed in February and early March in Qatif, Hofuf, al-Awamiyah, and Riyadh. A Facebook organiser of a planned 11 March "Day of Rage", Faisal Ahmed Abdul-Ahad, was allegedly killed by Saudi security forces on 2 March, with several hundred people protesting in Qatif, Hofuf and al-Amawiyah on the day itself. Khaled al-Johani demonstrated alone in Riyadh, was interviewed by BBC Arabic Television, was detained in ʽUlaysha Prison, and became known online as "the only brave man in Saudi Arabia". Many protests over human rights took place in April 2011 in front of government ministry buildings in Riyadh, Ta'if and Tabuk and in January 2012 in Riyadh. In 2011, Nimr al-Nimr encouraged his supporters in nonviolent resistance.

Anti-government protests demanding release of prisoners held without charge or trial continued in April and May 2011 in Qatif, al-Awamiyah and Hofuf in the Eastern Province, and extended to calls for the Peninsula Shield Force to be withdrawn from Bahrain and for the Eastern Province to have a constitution and a legislature. Four protesters were shot dead by Saudi authorities in late November in Qatif region protests and funerals, two on 2012 January 13 and two on 9 and 10 February 2012. In the early 2012 demonstrations, protesters chanted slogans against the House of Saud and Minister of Interior, Nayef, calling Nayef a "terrorist", "criminal" and "butcher" and throwing an effigy of Nayef at tanks. Police described two of the fatal shootings as responses to unidentified gunmen who had shot first. Eastern Province protests intensified after Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was wounded in the leg and arrested by police on 8 July. Four men were killed in a protest immediately following the arrest, with several funerals and protests following, including calls for the downfall of the House of Saud. While detained, al-Nimr was tortured and started a hunger strike, he was later executed in the 2016 mass execution. Protest organisers insisted on the use of nonviolent resistance and called for all Shia and Sunni detainees to be freed. A protester and a soldier were fatally shot in Qatif during a 3–4 August protest, leading to more protests.

Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released spread beyond the Eastern Province to protests at the Ministry of Interior in Riyadh on 20 March and in Riyadh and Buraidah in December 2011, and in July and August 2012 near al-Ha'ir Prison.

Women organised a Facebook women's suffrage campaign called "Baladi", stating that Saudi Arabian law gives women electoral rights. In April 2011, women in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam tried to register as electors for the 29 September municipal elections despite officials stating that women could not participate. In May and June, Manal al-Sharif and other women organised a women's right-to-drive campaign, with the main action to take place on 17 June. In late September, Shaima Jastania was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving in Jeddah, shortly after King Abdullah announced women's participation in the 2015 municipal elections and eligibility as Consultative Assembly members; King Abdullah overturned the sentence. Al-Sharif and Samar Badawi filed lawsuits against Saudi authorities in the Grievances Board, a non-Sharia court, because of the rejection of their driving licence applications. Women university students protested in King Khalid University (KKU) in Abha in March 2012 and were attacked by security forces, leading to one death. Other university protests followed in Taibah University in Medina and Tabuk University in March and April. KKU students called for the university president to be dismissed. He was replaced on 1 July 2012.