Eman Shamsaldeen
Eman Shamsaldeen is a Kuwaiti woman human rights defender, writer and researcher. Her work focuses mainly on the issue of statelessness (Bidoon) in Kuwait. She also works on issues in relation to religious pluralism, gender, political reform and women participation.
While the Constitution of Kuwait contains explicit guarantees for the right to free speech and association, in practice human rights defenders (HRDs) exercising these rights are targeted and face systematic violations. In recent years, digital security has become a growing concern, as the regime intensified its efforts to muzzle HRDs using the internet for their work. Online activists are targeted on very ambiguous grounds, most often under the claim that their public statements constitute insults to the Emir or the judiciary.
