Sara al-Drees, a teacher and author with hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers, was arrested at the airport for a tweet linking the Prophet Muhammad's marriage to his wife Safiyah with the practices of ISIS. She was charged with blasphemy.
her fiction writing; her Twitter following
In November 2015, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Kuwaiti teacher, author, and human rights acticist Sara al-Drees. A tweet she had posted led to accusations of blasphemy. In the tweet, she mentioned the historical narrative of the Prophet's wife Safiyah, a Jewish woman the Prophet is said to have married after a battle in which her brother, father, and husband all perished. She suggested ISIS was using this narrative to justify their own barbaric practices in the present day.
"If you read the story of Safiyah bint Hayi, you would learn the truth about the Islamic State." - tweet for which Sara was investigated
A social media campaign against Sara ensued, with blasphemy accusations circulating on a hashtag. Soon after, Kuwaiti authorities announced an arrest warrant had been issued over the tweet.
Sara, who was in the UK at the time, insisted her words had been misinterpreted and she had, in fact, intended to defend the Prophet's character from the distortions of ISIS. She announced her full intention to cooperate with the investigation, as she was innocent, and soon returned to Kuwait.
Upon arriving in Kuwait, Sara was arrested in accordance with the warrant. However, she was soon released on bail.
Blogger Arrested in Kuwait for Insulting Prophet Muhammad on Twitter - Jimmy Wales Foundation
Kuwaiti author charged over 'insulting' Prophet tweets - The New Arab
Blasphemy Blogger Arrested At Kuwait International Airport - Kuwait Local
Kuwait is formally an emirate where Islam is the official state religion. Roughly three-quarters of the population is Muslim, and the most sizeable religious minority is Christian. Ridiculing religious practices can result in fines and/or a year's imprisonment, and other laws prohibit the publication or public expression, including on the internet, of material that denigrates or otherwise offends a recognized religious group.