Rosie DiManno
Saudi teenager will need protection from Canada, even as she embraces the “free life” she sought here,
If the long predatory reach of Saudi extra-judicial malice can murder an internationally renowned journalist in a foreign country, what hope is there for an 18-year-old who’s embarrassed the Kingdom? Rahaf Mohammed — as of Monday, she is no longer using the family surname Alqunun — is no Jamal Khashoggi, nephew of a billionaire arms dealer, former editor in Saudi Arabia and columnist-in-exile for the Washington Post when he was assassinated by Saudi agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Oct. 2, the remains of his dismembered body never found.
Yet the teenager riveted the world last week, tweeting desperately for help from a barricaded airport hotel room in Bangkok, fearing for her life, terrified that Thailand officials would cave to Saudi demands that she be put on a plane and returned to the family she’d clandestinely fled while they’d been on holiday in Kuwait.
It was on the final day of that vacation, Rahaf said yesterday during an hour-long interview with the Star and the CBC. Her last chance for a bid at freedom. Waited till everyone was asleep, booked a flight to Bangkok, and was gone by 7 a.m. before the family awoke.
Had hoped to find refuge in Australia but immigration officials were dragging their feet. Didn’t have a visa — all her papers had been taken away by a man who’d met her flight, holding up a sign with her name on it, claiming to be with the Thai government, there to assist. He wasn’t and didn’t, as Rahaf was whisked away to the hotel. With Australia’s foreign minister claiming Rafah should not be treated differently from anybody else applying for refugee admission, Canada stepped in on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing that this country would grant her asylum immediately.
Arrived on Saturday, exhausted but jubilant. Had discarded the hijab for a UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees) ball cap and Canada hoodie, met by Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
On Monday, she looked like any other Canadian teenage girl, wearing torn jeans, a cable-knit sweater, and fashionable ankle boots. Astonishingly self-possessed, though.
“Lots of girls think the same way,” she explained through an interpreter. “A lot of my friends are girls that have escaped and are now refugees themselves.”
The ingenious teen had succeeded where an untold number of other Saudi women have failed — secured liberation from a deeply conservative and misogynist regime. Where others have been returned to Saudi Arabia, against their will, on the insistence of families and a government few nations will dare defy, never heard from again, Rahaf cleverly harnessed the power of social media to rise from anonymity, to make of herself a global cause celebre. She tweet-bombarded the UN, ambassadors, media, anyone who might respond to her pleas, racking up 66,000 followers on her Twitter account over a matter of days.
Her father and brother — a sibling one year older who’d been invested with her care because dad, governor of a Saudi state, lived elsewhere, with another family and other children — had flown to Thailand, intent on hauling this willful girl back home, Rahaf said. She refused to even speak with him.
“They have disowned me,” says Rahaf, only at that point tearing up. That’s why she’s dropped the family name.
The family, which includes four sisters, has tweeted out: “A naughty daughter who abused us with shameful and uncustomary behaviour and embarrassed our Islamic customs and values.”
Rahaf confirms that she has renounced Islam, a decision she actually arrived at two years ago, chafing under the social and religious constraints of the Kingdom’s formal Wahhabi faith, with its strict adherence to the Koran. But under her brother’s thumb, and a mother she claims tried to beat rebellion out of her — allegedly locked her up for six months for cutting her hair too short and “manly” — the girl deliberately waited until she was 18 — and the opportunity presented by the vacation in Kuwait. To run, turning her back on everything she’s known, possibly never seeing her family again.
It is almost beyond comprehension where this young woman got the guts to embark on emancipation, secretly and hastily making her own arrangements, traveling alone, knowing that she would be vilified by much of the public in Saudi Arabia when, if, her getaway would become public.
In doing so, Rahaf says she was rejecting the principles of “Male Guardianship Rules” in the Kingdom which, among other restrictions, constraints, require females to obtain the consent of a male relative — usually father, brother or husband — if they want to travel, take out a passport or marry.
“I was treated like a slave,” says Rahaf. “It was always taking demands from your parents about where to go, what to do and how to do it.
“It doesn’t matter whether a (female) is 60 years old or 10 years old.”
While dissidents and activists within the Kingdom have applauded Rahaf’s courageous escape, she has been crucified in much of the Arab media, the majority of Saudis agreeing with the government position that the matter is a “family affair” blown out of proportion by “anti-Saudi forces.” There has been much condemnation over Rahaf drinking wine — forbidden — on her flight to Canada.
“I was showing my happiness and I’m not a child so I could do what I want.’’
According to translations provided by MEMRI — the Middle East Media Research Institute (founded by an Israeli) — Mufleh Al-Qahatani, chair of the government-funded Saudi National Human Rights Society, has accused unspecified countries and international organizations of “acting out of political motivations rather than humanitarian ones,” using their officials to “incite Saudi delinquents and teenage girls to depart from their families’ values and traditions that guarantee a dignified life and constant protection.”
This, continued Al-Qahatani, could eventually “lead (the girls) to perdition and perhaps into the arms of human traffickers.”
Rahaf says she was receiving about a hundred death threats a day until closing down her social media accounts.
Canada is her guardian now. We are responsible for this girl’s safety.
The Kingdom is already under intense international criticism for the murder of Khashoggi, allegedly committed on the personal order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. That is the conclusion of the CIA.
The prince, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, not long ago celebrated for easing constraints against women — finally allowing them to drive, for example – could very well attempt nefarious means to drag Rahaf back. Or he might ignore her defiance completely, set the entire escapade aside as unworthy of further effort, diplomatic or covert and thuggish. But the threat is certainly there so Rahaf must be protected, even as the teenager embraces the “free life” she covets – continuing her education (wants to be an engineer), getting a job, advocating for other Saudi girls.
“I feel safe here but it’s not 100 per cent because everybody knows me now.”
It’s unclear if Rahaf actually grasps the enormity of what she’s done, that she might have a lifetime of looking over her shoulder. “That’s the thing I fear the most.
“My life is an example of someone who’s lived under oppression and had to escape.”
Yet she doesn’t recommend fleeing for other Saudi women.
“I don’t want them to escape because it puts their lives in danger.”
Rahaf did try to reach a beloved younger sister via social media. “I’ve been blocked.”