STUDENT ‘KEPT IN CAGE’ BY DAD
THIS is a picture of the 21-year-old woman “in” the cage she claims she is being kept in by her father in Saudi Arabia.
Amina Al-Jeffery – who was whisked to the Middle East four years ago – sent the picture to a friend in a plea for help.
The image shows Miss Al-Jeffery with her old dark locks swapped for cropped dyed hair. She is surrounded by bars. There is a padlocked gate in the background.
The High Court was told she has been starved of food and water, physically abused, and will not be allowed to marry the man of her choice.
She was taken to Jeddah by her father, academic Mohammed Al-Jeffery, when she was 16 because he opposed her Swansea lifestyle.
Miss Al-Jeffery claims her father, 62, locks her in a cage because she was arrested for allegedly kissing and hugging an American student at a Saudi university.
Now 21, she has launched legal action against him.
She spoke to lawyer Anne-Marie Hutchinson when she briefly escaped her father’s home.
Lawyers representing her say they fear for her safety and have taken action in London in a bid to protect her.
Mr Al-Jeffery said previously: “I will not allow Amina to go back to a toxic lifestyle.”
Mr Justice Holman said there was reason to be “very concerned” about Miss Al-Jeffery’s welfare, adding there was a “degree of admission” by Mr Al-Jeffery.
He said Mr Al-Jeffery, who works at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz University, had admitted locking his daughter in his flat when he went out and there had been “very elaborate steel latticework” over windows so that Miss Al-Jeffery could not shout out.
A “barrier or partition” had been erected at the property, which Miss Al-Jeffery likened to a cage.
The picture was sent to friend Robyn Lewis last November, The Times claimed.
“Amina sent me the message saying she didn’t want to be there,” Ms Lewis, who studied photography with Amina at Swansea’s Gowerton School, said. “She said, you need to help me to get out of here.”
Along with the photograph, Miss Al-Jeffery wrote: “Just because I am dressed up, I am dressed up in a cage.”
Ms Lewis said her friend had asked her mother’s permission to stop wearing her headscarf because she liked her long, black curly hair.
“Amina is so intelligent and thoughtful,” estate agent Ms Lewis said. “She taught me so much about Islam. Her father is portraying her as a rebel, she wasn’t. She did not drink alcohol.”
Ms Lewis thought her friend was going on a two-week holiday to Morocco when she was taken to Saudi.
Representing Mr Al-Jeffery, Marcus Scott-Manderson said the father had “required” his daughter to go to Saudi Arabia when she was 16 because he was concerned about the life she led in Wales.
Mr Scott-Manderson told the judge her father’s concern was “that she is going to be at risk” in Britain.
“He is the head of a family that has its own moral and cultural standards,” he said.
The High Court’s family division has been asked to order Mr Al-Jeffery to return his daughter to Swansea.
The case continues.