Lulwa Nasser Al-Hussainan is a Kuwaiti online commentator and human rights defender known for her outspoken criticism of government policies and her activism on social media. Al-Hussainan has been particularly targeted for her criticism of the Minister of Interior, Fahad Al-Yousef, including his role in campaigns to revoke the citizenship of thousands of individuals, many of them women (including foreign wives married to Kuwaitis) and children. She published her encounter with the Minister of Interior, who summoned her in December 2024 to his office and scolded her for her critical online posts on X platform, which impinge on the authority of the Emir. During that session, Al-Hussainan was subjected to beatings, solitary confinement in a freezing cell, and the severe deterioration of her health that led to her release.

As a result, Al-Hussainan was forced to flee Kuwait on 15 December 2024 following what has been described as significant targeting orchestrated by the authorities. She sought asylum in the UK. She has since faced multiple prosecutions on charges of ‘insulting the Emir’, which appear to be politically motivated. On 08 January 2025, Al-Hussainan was sentenced by the Kuwaiti Criminal Court to five years in prison on this charge. She was later sentenced again to three years in prison on 16 March 2025 for the same accusation, although this second sentence was overturned on 19 June 2025. According to assessments of the recordings cited in the case, Al-Hussainan addressed the Emir in a respectful and civil manner.

Through her activity on X, where she notably writes, “My country, how harsh life is for the free and honest”, Al-Hussainan continues to express her views on public affairs and denounce repression. In March 2026, she published several statements criticising the authorities, including on 03 March 2026 calling for the release of prisoners of conscience and the restoration of arbitrarily revoked citizenships, on 12 March 2026 questioning the Ministry of Interior’s practice of publishing photos of detainees in a manner that violates their dignity and presumption of innocence, and on 14 March 2026 denouncing what she described as the exploitation of regional tensions to justify repression and abuse of power. In addition to targeting her directly, the authorities have also taken actions against her family members, notably the arbitrary arrest of her brother, Abdullah Nasser Al-Hussainan, on 07 March 2026, an incident she publicly exposed, raising concerns about reprisals extending beyond the individual to their relatives.