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npr.org -- SASHA INGBER -- The June cover of Vogue Arabia featuring a Saudi princess behind the wheel of a convertible is facing backlash. The photo was intended to celebrate the trailblazing women of Saudi Arabia ahead of the lifting of a ban on women driving, on June 24. But the royal family has been accused of jailing female rights activists who for years fought for the right to drive. It is the first Vogue edition dedicated to the conservative country. Editor-in-Chief Manuel Arnaut said the magazine "celebrates the exciting and progressive changes transforming the Kingdom" and that "embodying this new era of female empowerment is [her royal highness] Princess Hayfa bint Abdullah Al Saud." He added that the photo shoot, in "the dancing sands of the desert of Dhahban" outside Jiddah, was "of great meaning for the Arab world." But some people saw the cover as an affront to Saudi women's rights activists who were recently arrested.

At least 11 activists have been detained since mid-May, amounting to "a large-scale crackdown on women's rights activists and other supporters," according to the Human Rights Watch. Some of the activists remain in custody. That casts doubt on the kingdom's commitment to women's rights, Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "The crown prince, who has styled himself as a reformer with Western allies and investors, should be thanking the activists for their contributions to the Saudi women's rights movement." "The choice of a Saudi princess for Vogue Arabia's cover is completely tone-deaf," Husain Abdulla, executive director of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, told NPR. "It obscures the monarchy's long-standing violations of women's rights and freedoms in Saudi Arabia, and steals credit from the trailblazing women who have campaigned ceaselessly since the 1990s for equal rights — and who the government just locked up."