US singer Mariah Carey faces backlash over upcoming Saudi concert

U.S. superstar Mariah Carey found herself in hot water after activists called on the singer to cancel her upcoming concert in the Saudi city of Jeddah over the Kingdom’s human rights abuses and killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

The concert was touted as a sign of the Kingdom opening up under Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s reforms to promote what he calls “moderate Islam.”

Activists pointed out what they called “the hypocrisy” in staging such a concert as part of a reform plan when dozens of female activists are rounded up and face torture in the oil-rich Kingdom’s prisons.

Shocking new reports have emerged regarding the treatment of women’s right activists being held in secret Saudi prisons. Amnesty International in a report on Friday released fresh details on female prisoners in the Kingdom after it previously accused Riyadh of subjecting women to beatings and torture.

Over a dozen women’s rights activists have been arrested since May, most of whom had campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the Kingdom’s male guardianship system, though some have since been freed.

The arrests followed an earlier crackdown on clerics, intellectuals, and activists in September 2017 in an apparent bid to silence potential opponents of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Others pointed out that global superstars should boycott the Saudi kingdom following the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s Istanbul consulate last October.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist living in the United States, was killed on Oct. 2 at the Saudi consulate, where he had gone to collect documents for his planned wedding.