She will be allowed to stay in Thailand while her case for asylum is evaluated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Translation of tweets from the #Saudi woman trying to flee into asylum who said she is being held at #Bangkok airport: “I am the girl who escaped #Kuwait to #Thailand. My life is in real danger if I am forced to return to #Saudi Arabia.” https://t.co/6DLk4WSpKX
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) January 5, 2019
Rahaf’s plight has attracted global attention over the past 48 hours after she sent a number of tweets from the airport hotel room which she barricaded herself in.
This is @rahaf84427714: help her! “Based on the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, I'm Rahaf Mohammed, formally seeking refugee status to any country that would protect me from getting harmed or killed due to leaving my religion and torture from my family. #SaveRahaf pic.twitter.com/oxKHYxpE91
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) January 7, 2019
Her messages caught the attention of human rights advocates, reporters and citizens around the world who pleaded with various authorities for asylum to be granted. She gained more than 72,000 Twitter followers in under a day.
Thank you to everyone who spoke out — Rahaf is safe for now! #SaveRahaf
Fleeing Saudi Woman, Facing Deportation, Is Allowed to Remain in Thailand https://t.co/377LXB7DCN
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 7, 2019
An Australian journalist and foreign correspondent, Sophie McNeil, was in Bangkok and appears to have spent at least part of Monday with Rahaf in the hotel room until the UN stepped in.
https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082297101239836672
“We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law,” the Thai Immigration Police chief Major General Surachate Hakparn said.
UN has arrived. They are interviewing Rahaf. They gave their word that she would remain in their custody & that she is now safe. This is what they promised @UNHCRThailand @Reaproy @melissarfleming
— Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) January 7, 2019
The facts are chilling.
Rahaf is from a powerful family and she has reportedly denounced Islam which is a serious crime in Saudi Arabia. She seized the opportunity to escape while she was in Kuwait – a country in which females are allowed to travel without a male adult – something that is forbidden in her homeland.
She bought a ticket to Australia that stopped in Thailand but when she landed in Bangkok a man purportedly from Kuwait took her passport and said she would be returned. She then holed herself up in a hotel room where she turned to social media to plead for help.
Dear Rahaf, my @refugees colleagues are at the airport now and are seeking access to you!
— Melissa Fleming 🇺🇳 (@MelissaFleming) January 7, 2019
One of Rahaf’s cousins has openly threatening to kill her online since her story became known and her father travelled to Bangkok to get her.
Hey I'm Rahaf. My father just arrived as I heard witch worried and scared me a lot and I want to go to another country that I seek asylum in
But at least I feel save now under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities. And I finally got my passport back🙏🏻❤️ pic.twitter.com/pQER7HDVi7— Rahaf Mohammed رهف محمد (@rahaf84427714) January 7, 2019
Her situation is scarily reminiscent of another Saudi woman, Dina Ali, who escaped her homeland hoping to travel to Australia before being detained in The Philippines in April of 2017.
Despite her own pleas on social media for an intervention she was returned to Saudi Arabia and has never been heard from since.
Extremely worried that Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun will face similar fate & abuse if she is forced back from #Thailand. She wants to seek asylum, currently being kept at #Bangkok airport hotel by representatives of #SaudiArabia embassy. #FreeRahaf https://t.co/CgiJNHHyKb
— Phil Robertson (@Reaproy) January 6, 2019
Rahaf appears to be safe from deportation for now. Ideally a third country will step in quickly as she has been promised. It is good news when considering the depth of Rahaf’s fear about returning home and yet it is devastating to consider that a woman of just 18 years of age can face such terror and fear in her home country that fleeing her family and the only life she has ever known is the safest available option.
It is a sobering reminder of the oppression under which too many girls and women still live.