Mariah Carey urged to cancel Saudi Arabia performance over women's rights abuses

'Doesn’t she know Saudi Arabia is one of the most repressive and murderous regimes on the planet?' says women’s activist group

Women’s activist group CodePink called on Carey not to 'artwash' the Saudi capital Riyadh (Startraks Photo/REX/Shutterstock)

Mariah Carey is facing calls to cancel a forthcoming performance in Saudi Arabia over the country’s alleged human rights abuses and imprisonment of women’s rights campaigners.

The megastar is set to take the stage in her first concert in the kingdom on Thursday on the sidelines of its first international golf tournament.

Carey - who is scheduled to perform alongside Sean Paul and DJ Tiesto - would be the most famous Western female singer to perform since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman relaxed rules around the entertainment industry.

Although women in the Middle Eastern country have recently gained the right to drive, campaigners say the kingdom has since arrested, imprisoned, and tortured a number of the women who campaigned for it.

Critics have called for Carey - one of the best-selling singers in history - to cancel her upcoming performance.

Women’s activist group CodePink called on Carey, who has had 18 number one hits in the US and sold more than 200m records worldwide, not to “artwash” the Saudi capital Riyadh. They urged her and the other performers to cancel the show.

“Doesn’t she know Saudi Arabia is one of the most repressive and murderous regimes on the planet?” the group said in a statement which launched its petition to call off the concert.

A slew of commentators on Twitter tried to draw the musician’s attention to the kingdom’s treatment of women.

Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahaway said: “Dear Mariah Carey, I hear you’re planning on performing in Saudi Arabia. Are you aware that women’s rights activists have been detained without charge since May 2018?”

Although some Carey fans argued it was unfair to urge her to resolve Saudi Arabia’s human rights issues, activists in the country itself issued a plea for her to not allow her name to be used to “showcase” the Crown Prince's “fake reforms".

Carey's scheduled performance also comes after a Saudi teenager was granted asylum in Canada earlier this month following claims she was deprived of her rights by her father.

The plight of Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun has shone a light on the guardianship system, which Human Rights Watch has branded the most “significant impediment to realising women’s rights in the country.”

The event also follows an international backlash over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi last October. His editor at the major US newspaper, Karen Attiah, also tweeted at Carey, DJ Tiesto and Paul.

Saudi agents killed Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in October.

US intelligence assessments and experts have said the Crown Prince, who controls all levers of power in Saudi Arabia, is likely to have ordered, or at least knew about the high-profile murder.

Saudi authorities say those who killed Khashoggi exceeded their authority, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for five people allegedly involved.

Last week, it was announced that the United Nations is launching an investigation into the killing.