Dissident Spotlight: Ahmed Mansoor
Ahmed Mansoor has been in and out of prison in the UAE since 2011, when he was first arrested for a blog critical of the country's human rights violations.
Ahmed Mansoor has argued for democratic rights in the United Arab Emirates for decades. In 2011, he was arrested and imprisoned for calling for an election boycott and criticizing state officials for autocratic tendencies. He was released after eight months following a presidential pardon, but any prison time for “insulting officials” is chilling.
Mansoor’s ordeal didn’t end there. He was re-arrested in 2017 for “publish[ing] false information that harms national unity.” In May 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, a massive escalation from the three-year sentence he was pardoned from in 2011.
That still wasn’t the end of the UAE’s retaliation against Mansoor. In July 2024, the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court sentenced Mansoor to another 15 years in prison. Mansoor’s appeal was rejected in March 2025.
Mansoor’s 2024 trial included over 50 defendants that the UAE’s government was determined to keep silent. Even though the UAE seems like a safe, wealthy country on the outside, criticism of the government remains off-limits.
Speak When They’re Looking
Mansoor has two great lessons to teach the free world.
One is that Americans are lucky to be able voice even tepid criticisms of their government. The blowback Americans get for an unpopular opinion pales in comparison to prison sentences that can be measured in lifetimes.
The second is how important it is to continue challenging powerful people even when the consequences are dangerous. In 2020, the UAE relaxed some of its strictest laws, including alcohol prohibitions and removing corporal punishment from its penal code.
But progress toward a free society is not the same as a free society. Mansoor and people like him are reminders of the sacrifices that a better, freer society demand.
In a portion of one of his poems quoted by Amnesty International, Mansoor warns his captors to expect his defiance:
“…This time, I swear
I won’t utter a word, or move
I will stay the way I am
until you turn to look…”