Dr. Hatoon al‐Fassi is a Saudi Arabian scholar and historian, an associate professor of women's history at King Saud University. Furthermore, she is a women's rights activist who has fought for Saudi women's right to vote and drive; she was one of the first women to acquire a Saudi driving license. She has also been an active part of building Musawah as an Advocate, from its early days of conceptual workshops to helping other activists around the world to fight for women's rights from within Islamic traditions. She was arrested in 2018 just days before the Saudi government lifted the ban on women driving. While in prison, she was awarded the 2018 Academic Freedom Award by the Middle East Studies Association of North America.