In January barrikerade Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun on a hotel room in Bangkok in order to prevent being deported back to saudi Arabia. 18-year-old claimed that she had escaped from her family because she is subjected to physical and psychological abuse and that the family had threatened to kill her.
world news, and the latest example of women trying to escape from saudi Arabia.
Read more: Thailand does not send back the saudi woman who fled her family
Now another case has popped up. There are two sisters who call themselves Rawan and Reem six months back located in Hong kong on the run from his family, writes The Guardian.
– Our room was like a prison cell and our father and our brothers were prison guards. All of saudi Arabia is like a big prison, ” says Reem to the newspaper.
18 and 20 years, tells the magazine’s reporter that they fled from his family in connection with a holiday on Sri Lanka and tried to get to Australia where they hoped to get asylum. But they were stopped by saudi authorities when they landed in Hong kong, and where they have been stuck in a legal limbo since then.
In the days running their extended tourist visa out and the uncertainty about what will happen is great. To be granted asylum in Hong kong is extremely difficult. The hope is to get akutvisum to third countries where they have the chance to get asylum. Stop the left without a visa, they risk prosecution and deported to saudi Arabia, writes The Guardian.
has left islam, fear the worst if they are forced to return to her family.
– Death. We are in danger of honour killings, ” says Rawan.
the position of Women is weak in the strictly muslim kingdom. Several women’s rights activists are imprisoned because they want to abolish the country’s system of guardianship for women, this means, among other things, that saudi women cannot work, marry or travel abroad without a male relative’s permission.
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and human rights organisations are trying to hundreds of women escape the oppression each year.
” We have received an increasing number of cases with the saudi women who are trying to flee the country for various reasons. This applies to both systematic discrimination under the male guardianship as domestic violence or the threat of violence, ” says Adam Coogle, Mellanösternforskare for Human Rights Watch to The Guardian.
But Coogle adds to the number of unknown cases probably is much higher.
As is the case with Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun the sisters have written about his situation on social media to get help – and the hope of attention. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun finally managed to get asylum in Canada.
https://twitter.com/HKsisters6/status/1100641250108043264
hope that they soon can feel safe and get to create a future. During his time in Hong kong, they have remained hidden and moved around, constantly in fear of being discovered. At the same time, they experience a sense of freedom that they did not have before.
another big change is that none of them need to cover themselves with the veil.
“I thought it would feel strange but it felt quite normal,” says Reem to the newspaper.
– the First time I went out in Hong kong with my sister I was surprised. I felt how the air touched my face and my hair and I breathed without the niqab. I could go without someone monitored my steps and I was able to talked with my sister without someone reacted on how loud I talked.
