JoanofArgh
JoanofArgh's JournalAn 18 year old Saudi woman is being detained at the Bangkok airport, terrified she'll be sent back
A Saudi woman who is being held in Bangkok after trying to escape her abusive family has told of her terror that she will be killed if she is deported as planned in a few hours.Rahaf Mohammed al Qunun, 18, has been trapped in the airport since arriving at 4am GMT on Sunday.
She intended to reach Australia and apply for asylum but a Saudi official in the Thai airport confiscated her passport after her father reported her for travelling without her male 'guardian'. He claimed she was mentally ill but failed to provide any evidence.
Rahaf is due to be escorted on to the 11.15am (4.15am GMT) Kuwait Airways flight 412 from Bangkok to Kuwait tomorrow morning.
She, her parents, and her six siblings live in Hail in Saudi Arabia, where her father works as a government official. She has suffered beatings and emotional abuse from her family, at one point being locked in her room for six months for cutting her hair. When they took a trip to visit family in Kuwait she made her escape, buying flights from Kuwait to Thailand and from Thailand to Australia with help from a friend, and taking a taxi to the airport at 4am after checking her father was asleep.
She said: When I came to Thailand someone told me that he will help me to get a visa for Thailand in the airport. After that he took my passport. After one hour he came back with five or six people, I think they were police or something and then they told me my father is so angry and I must go back to Saudi Arabia. They know I ran away from him.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6562169/Saudi-woman-trapped-Bangkok-airport-trying-flee-family-amid-fears-kill-her.html
Rahaf renounced Islam upon arriving in Bangkok which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Her video
https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082048493387214848
لكل الجهات المختصة اللتي باستطاعتها مساعدتي، Im asking formally a protection from all Human rights organizations who could save me
5:57 PM - 6 Jan 2019
https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082042525710409728
Please help @TLHR2014 @sunaibkk I am in bangkok about to be forced on a flight back to Saudi where my life is in danger
https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082009804745396224
Because I was very afraid before, I forgot to mention that the Saudi Arabia's embassy also said to the Bangkok airport if they don't flee me back to Kuwait they will literally KIDNAP me.
https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1081992555800285184
This isnt 1st time airports have detained #Saudi women trying to escape. In 2017, Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, was held at #Manila airport until uncles came, beat her & dragged her onto a plane to #Riyadh her mouth taped shut & her arms & legs bound https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/opinion/why-saudi-women-are-literally-living-the-handmaids-tale.html #SaveRahaf
Perfect response from Nancy Pelosi
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/1081243740444995584I ask Pelosi as she leaves the Capitol for WH mtg on gov't shutdown if she will speak to Dem MI Rep Rashida Tlaib about the language Tlaib used when discussing Trump: Pelosi responds Im going to talk to the President about his language.
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