“If it was up to them, the government would have arrested and prosecuted me by now. Apostasy - abandoning your religion - is punishable by death in the country, and atheists have been labeled terrorists by the government.
In the days that followed, she received transphobic comments, death threats, and calls that she be arrested by Saudi authorities for what she had said. A recording of the conversation started circulating on Twitter and the backlash was swift, resulting in the trending hashtag. In June 2021, Alita, a trans woman living in Saudi Arabia, saw a hashtag trending on Twitter that translated roughly to “a space for hatred of religion.” In a Twitter Spaces audio room days earlier, Alita, who asked Rest of World to use her screen name for her safety, had spoken frankly about atheism and her decision to leave Islam.
