When President Trump greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office this week, a reporter raised the name of Jamal Khashoggi. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Khashoggi was murdered in 2018 in an operation approved by the Crown Prince.
The president replied, “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
Khashoggi, born into a prominent Saudi family, left the kingdom in June 2017 after becoming an outspoken critic of the government. He said he had been banned from Twitter and began writing columns for The Washington Post. In one candid passage he acknowledged how fear had shaped his earlier silence: “It was painful for me several years ago when several friends were arrested,” he wrote. “I said nothing. I didn’t want to lose my job or my freedom. I worried about my family. I have made a different choice now. I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot.”
The following summer, the Crown Prince lifted the long-standing ban on women driving. Yet before that change, Saudi authorities detained many women’s rights activists, accusing them of improper ties to foreign actors. Khashoggi warned of the limits placed on dissent: “The message is clear to all. Activism of any sort has to be within the government, and no independent voice or counter-opinion will be allowed. Everyone must stick to the party line.”
On Oct. 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his marriage. His fiancée waited outside for hours; he did not emerge.
Even after his death his writing continued to make an impact. His final column, published posthumously, called for free expression across the Arab world and cautioned that regional authorities “have been given free rein to continue silencing the media.”
Khashoggi knew that his words would be labeled not merely “extremely controversial” but dangerous to those in power. He wrote them anyway, and his voice has outlived the attempt to silence it.