In November 2008, al-Qahtani was among 20 human rights activists who started a two-day hunger strike in protest against the imprisonment without fair, public trials of 11 activists, including Suliman al-Reshoudi and former university professors.[10][11][12] Al-Qahtani stated that petitions calling for the activists to receive fair trials and better conditions of detention were ignored, and that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly were not respected in Saudi Arabia.[10][12]