Ensaf Haidar

Haidar supported the right-wing populist People's Party of Canada upon its foundation in 2018. By the time of the 2019 federal election, however, she was courted as a candidate for the Quebec sovereigntist Bloc Québécois, but declined.

Haidar and her three children with Badawi became Canadian citizens on Canada Day, 2018. On the same day Haidar called for the niqab to be banned.

In 2016 Haidar asked the Canadian government under Justin Trudeau to grant Canadian citizenship to her husband, but Trudeau rejected the suggestion because dual nationality is not recognized by Saudi Arabia. Trudeau called for the release of her husband at the 2018 G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 2015, Haidar accepted, on her husband's behalf, the Sakharov Prize for human rights awarded by the European Parliament.

"The Saudi people rejected their liberal ideas and they were agents of the embassies. Then the voices calling for Raif's arrest and trial escalated, and the Saudi authorities arrested him on the order of the investigative body on June 12, 2012."

Haidar noted that Saudi cleric Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak issued a fatwa against Badawi, accusing him of apostasy and incited the population to kill him. Badawi was confirmed to be a Muslim after reciting the Shahada. He was arrested on 12 June 2012. Haidar left Saudi Arabia with her children as soon as the fatwa was issued for her husband, months before his arrest. Badawi stayed behind, according to Haidar because he loved and was patriotic to Saudi Arabia. Immediately after his arrest, Haidar went to Sherbrooke, Canada, where she still lives with her children. Haidar stated, "I was afraid for my life and the lives of my children, We moved to Lebanon, and then we moved to Canada immediately after his arrest, where we got a permit to establish a temporary residence".

Haidar married Badawi in Saudi Arabia in 2002 and became active on his case after directing harsh criticism against the religious establishment through articles and media interviews, which angered radical Saudi clerics, including Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, Saudi religious scholar, and former member of the teaching body of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University.

Ensaf Haidar (Arabic: إنصاف حيدر ‎; born 1975) is a Saudi-born Canadian human rights activist. Born in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, Haidar is the wife of Raif Badawi, a Saudi writer, dissident and activist who was 2014 sentenced to ten years in prison and 1000 lashes. She actively campaigns for his freedom. Haidar is the President of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom, that actively campaigns for freedom of speech and human rights awareness in the Arab World.