September 25, 2025, saw Human Rights Watch (HRW) issue a harsh alert as the Saudi government kicked off the first-ever Riyadh Comedy Festival, touted as the “world’s largest comedy event.” While the festival offers mirth and entertainment, HRW warned that it has a far more sinister intent: to “deflect attention” from the kingdom’s institutionalized human rights violations, its continued stifling of free speech, and the hanging question of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The timing is particularly noteworthy. The festival takes place between September 26 and October 9, the seventh anniversary of the murder of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Far from confronting that horrific crime, the Saudi regime seems bent on consigning it to oblivion under a sheen of cultural activities and movie star appearances.
This tradition has a name: sportswashing and cultural whitewashing—the strategic deployment of international spectacles to clean up reputations soiled by repression. And this same tactic is now at the center of Saudi Arabia’s hosting bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
A Comedy Festival in the Shadow of Abuse
As HRW researcher Joey Shea notes, comedians who are invited to Riyadh should not be silent in return for lucrative salaries. Rather, they must use their podiums to call for the liberation of imprisoned Saudi activist Waleed Abu al-Khair, a leading human rights attorney, and Manahel al-Otaibi, sentenced for her peaceful activism. Others, like journalist Turki al-Jasser and analyst Abdullah al-Shamri, paid with their lives for speaking up.
Comedians such as Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, Pete Davidson, and Jimmy Carr are on stage, but their presence threatens to legitimize a regime that executes political opponents and imprisons women for defying patriarchal conventions. In reality, American comedian Tim Dillon disclosed that he was removed from the lineup after making a joke regarding Saudi Arabia “having slaves.” The irony is not more apparent: a comedy festival with the promise of freedom of speech that mutes the same voices willing to utter truth.
Vision 2030 or Whitewashing 2030?
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 policy has been sold as a visionary plan to transform the kingdom, break the shackles of oil dependency, and create a world-class hub for culture and tourism. But behind the glossy platitudes is a concerted campaign to cover up continued repression.
Rights organizations have pointed out a rise in the number of executions, violent repression against women’s rights activists, and criminalization of peaceful protest. The nation is outside major international agreements safeguarding free speech, such as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Practically speaking, this means that criticism of the monarchy, Islam, or government policy is an imprisonable offense—or even worse.
Granting Saudi Arabia the hosting rights of the World Cup would not be a celebration of advances but a legitimization of authoritarian whitewashing, a perilous precedent for global sport.
The Stakes for Human Rights
It’s not just where games are hosted but what is supported by global institutions. By awarding the World Cup to Saudi Arabia, FIFA would be condoning a system that:
- Executes people for nonviolent crimes and these executions have exceeded in 2025.
- Jails activists, journalists, and lawyers for exercising peaceful speech.
- The law issued in 2022 states severely sanctions women for defying laws of male guardianship.
- Uses major events to divert attention away from unsolved crimes, like the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
FIFA regularly announces that it is committed to human rights, fair play, and inclusion. Granting Saudi Arabia hosting in 2034 would render those words meaningless, seriously damaging FIFA’s integrity and international trust in the governing body of football.
Sportswashing and Global Responsibility
The Riyadh Comedy Festival is just one of the ways Saudi Arabia uses global culture as a cloak of repression. Formula 1 races, heavyweight boxing matches, and big-ticket concerts have all been hosted under the kingdom’s banner. Each creates a news story about modernization and entertainment—while political prisoners rot in cells.
Should this tactic work on FIFA, then the World Cup might serve as the jewel in the crown of Saudi sportswashing, redrawing history to present an image of being open that is in total contrast to the actual lives of Saudi nationals and migrant workers.
The world cannot afford to turn a blind eye. Human rights are not an addendum issue—their inclusion is the essence of whether or not the honor of staging the world’s most global tournament should be left with countries.
A Call to FIFA and the World
FIFA faces a defining choice. It can either align itself with the values of justice, dignity, and freedom that millions of fans associate with football—or it can become a vehicle for authoritarian propaganda.
Activists, fans, and human rights groups need to speak out now, before hosting rights are awarded. Demonstrations calling on FIFA to apply more rigorous human rights standards for hosts are futile unless implemented with credibility. Saudi Arabia’s track record is at odds with those values.
To give the kingdom the World Cup would be to betray the activists in jail, the families grieving executed family members, and the memory of Jamal Khashoggi, whose murder is an ever-present reminder of the regime’s intolerance of dissent.
Safeguard the Spirit of Football
The Riyadh Comedy Festival shows the depths to which Saudi Arabia will stoop in order to cover up its abuses with laughter, lights, and star appearances. But no amount of faked comedy or bling stadiums can wash away the reality: a country that silences comedians, imprisons women for dissent, beheads dissidents, and disregards international human rights law is not worthy to host the world’s greatest sporting event.
The 2034 FIFA World Cup should not be another milestone in the whitewashing campaign of the kingdom. Rather, FIFA should stand on principle and communicate that human rights and freedom of expression are non-negotiable.
As citizens of the world, as fans, and as advocates for human rights, we should insist on more. Football is for the people—not for authoritarian regimes trying to hide injustice behind a tsunami of noise from the fans. For the World Cup to continue to represent hope and unity, Saudi Arabia cannot be allowed to host in 2034.