Runaway teen to fight for rights
A Saudi teenager whose flight from her allegedly abusive family captured global attention says she wants to work in support of freedom for women around the world for years to come.
Rahaf Mohammed also has quickly embraced life in Canada, saying that when she learned she would be granted asylum, ‘‘the stress that I felt over the last week melted away’’. The 18-year-old also quickly shed a part of her Saudi past, dropping use of the name of the Alqunun family that disowned her.
In a public appearance yesterday organised by the United Nations refugee agency and an immigrant aid group, she said through an interpreter that her first priority was to learn English.
The young woman arrived in Canada over the weekend after a harrowing flight from her homeland. She fled her family while visiting Kuwait and flew to Bangkok. Once there, she barricaded herself in an airport hotel to avoid deportation and tweeted about her situation, gaining international sympathy and prompting the UN refugee agency to seek a home for her.
‘‘Today and for years to come, I will work in support of freedom for women around the world,’’ she said.
‘‘The same freedom I experienced on the first day I arrived in Canada.’’
Her situation has highlighted the issue of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, where several women fleeing abuse by their families have been denied asylum abroad and returned home in recent years.
‘‘I am one of the lucky ones,’’ she said. ‘‘I know that there are unlucky women who disappeared after trying to escape or who could not do anything to change their reality.’’ –