‘Brave new Canadian’
Young Saudi woman, who feared she would be killed if sent back to her country, ‘happy to be in her new home’ as she arrives in Toronto following global Twitter campaign to grant her asylum
Her whirlwind first day in Canada began in front of dozens of photographers and reporters at Pearson airport, as she was escorted by one of the country’s top officials.
But after that high-profile welcome, Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun now faces the challenges encountered by any refugee: finding warm clothes, looking for a place to live, obtaining ID and a bank account. Alqunun must also adjust to a society far different from the one she fled.
“We believe very strongly that women’s rights are human rights,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland after welcoming a smiling Alqunun, who made a brief appearance before media on Saturday, wearing a grey “Canada” hoodie, fol- lowing her flight to Toronto.
“The oppression of women is not a problem that can be resolved in a day. But rather than cursing the darkness, we really believe — I believe — in lighting a single candle,” Freeland said. “And where we can save a single person, where we can save a single woman, that’s a good thing to do.”
The 18-year-old Alqunun attracted international attention last week after sharing on Twitter how she escaped her allegedly abusive family by fleeing to Bangkok during a visit to Kuwait. When Thai officials confiscated her passport, Alqunun barricaded herself in an airport hotel room with a table and a mattress and launched her social media appeal for help.
Canadian diplomats in the Thai capital were seized with her plight, and though Alqunun originally said she wanted to reach Australia, it soon became clear that Canada represented her quickest path to freedom. Alqunun, who comes from Ha’il in northwestern Saudi Arabia, had said she feared she might be killed if forced to return to her family.
“I’m rahaf mohmed, formally seeking a refugee status to any country that would protect me from getting harmed or killed due to leaving my religion and torture from my family (sic),” reads a posting on Alqunun’s Twitter account from Jan. 6.
Alqunun’s brother and father, who denied any allegations of abuse, had travelled to Thailand to take her back to Saudi Arabia. The head of Thailand’s immigration bureau, Surachate Hakparn, said Alqunun refused to meet family members and that the two men were to return to Saudi Arabia early Saturday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced during a press conference in Regina on Friday that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had asked Canada to take Alqunun as a refugee, and Canada agreed.
“That is something that we are pleased to do because Canada is a country that understands how important it is to stand up for human rights, to stand up for women’s rights around the world,” Trudeau said.
Lauren La Rose, a spokesperson for UNHCR Canada, said the agency took notice of Alqunun’s social media campaign and sent representatives to Thailand to assist the teenager in finding a country to take her in. She said the UNHCR considered Alqunun’s case to be an emergency because her life was in danger.
“Ultimately it boiled down to an issue of timing in the end,” said La Rose. “Canada was able to guarantee and certify that they could handle this quite swiftly, and that’s why Rahaf was brought to Canada.”
In her remarks to the media at Pearson airport, where Alqunun arrived Saturday morning on a flight from Seoul, South Korea, Freeland thanked Canada’s diplomats, in particular the embassy in Thailand.
Calling Alqunun a “very brave new Canadian,” Freeland said the teenager was tired after her ordeal and would not be speaking to media, but did say it was Alqunun’s decision to make an appearance before the cameras.
“She wanted Canadians to see that she’s here, that she’s well and that she’s very happy to be in her new home, although she did comment to me about the cold. I told her it does get warmer,” the foreign affairs minister said.
The cold weather (Toronto’s temperature hovered around -7 C Saturday morning) prompted a shopping trip for warm clothes for the teenager, who will be staying in temporary lodgings before more permanent housing can be found for her, said Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI Immigrant Services, an agency working with Alqunun.
He said Alqunun was anxious Saturday afternoon to meet friends in Toronto that she had made through social media.
Calla said her current living arrangements and whereabouts are being kept confidential, although Alqunun is not considered to be in danger.
“There is concern,” Calla told the Star on Saturday, noting his organization has not received any threats. “We have advised her about being careful not to disclose her location and things like that … I’m saying it’s just a question of caution more than anything else.”