Four daughters of the Saudi king say he is keeping them prisoner, and has been for more than a decade.
Princesses Sahar and Jawaher are the daughters of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. They say they have been held in the royal compound in Jeddah for the last 13 years, and their sisters Maha and Hala are also being held in separate villas. They claim they are not allowed to travel or leave their home.
Princesses Sahar and Jawaher claim they have little communication outside of their gates – “no-one is allowed in or out.” They say the internet is their only window onto the world. Via Skype, they tell Channel 4 News they are “cut off, isolated… and alone” and that “our father, the king, is responsible.”
Their mother Alanoud Al Fayez, who is divorced from the king, first went public with their story two weeks ago, giving her first broadcast interview to Channel 4 News. Since that interview was broadcast, the princesses say restrictions on them have been tightened and they are no longer even allowed to make trips with armed guards for food, as they were previously.
They say food is now becoming scarce in their home, that they are desperate for the world to listen to their story and for someone to help.
The Saudi ambassador in London has responded to the interview…by saying “this is a private matter”.
In countries that aren’t savage theocracies, it’s against the law to imprison people. It’s not a “private matter” at all. But Saudi Arabia is a savage theocracy, so maybe there it is a private affair.
Evil bastards.
I wish we could do something, anything. I looked for activity via amnesty international but couldn’t find anything so far
There’s nothing you can do, karmacat, because Saudi Arabia is a US ally. That means the US government will not criticize nor interfere with anything that goes on over there. Doesn’t matter what it is.
Ironic to see an ad with the slogan “Hello Tomorrow emirates”
The cultures of these countries seem stuck a lot further back than yesterday.
Fly emirates? I think they left out the word ‘the’ – as in ‘Fly from the emirates” -including the Saudi theocratic monarchy – to the decent world beyond where people aren’t treated like that.
Perhaps the UK should revoke this Saudi pig’s human rights, keep him in prison and control his every move and even what and whether he gets to eat and see how “private ” he considers that?
They can’t and won’t of course because Westerners don’t treat people like that but in this case it is very tempting to say they should make the exception.
(No, I’m not seriously advocating they do that – but, damn, I wish they would do something to stop this appalling abuse and free the princesses from this slavery.)
(off topic)
@ 3 StevoR
Presumably you don’t consider the “detainees” at Guantanamo Bay to be people.
(/off topic)
I’d bet a lot that the divorce was the King’s idea, not the wife’s.
These women are their father’s property so he can do anything with them that he wants. As Mel Brooks once observed: “It’s good to be the king.”
StevoR:
Omar Khadr.
Presumably you don’t consider the “detainees” at Guantanamo Bay to be people.
Oh they’re people all right, but unlike the imprisonned women in this story, they’re also KILLERS
Omar Khadr
Another socipath murderer.
It is utterly shameful and dishonest to draw an equivalence between people who are either captured combatants or murderers and four innocent women being held prisoner thanks to the primitive diktats of a backward, uber patriachal religion.
If one wants to portray some scumbag like Omar Khadr as a victim on the same level as these four women, then they may, provided they pull my index finger afterwards
All of them?
@9
Perhaps you could billet a dozen of them at your home, such is your belief in their innocence and innocuity.
For some, even in the face of outrageous human rights abuses having nothing to do with the Uncle Sam, EVERYTHING has to be tied back to America’s “sins”.
America has nothing to do with the fact there are no real females in Saudi Arabia.
That the Saudi population is composed of only males and ‘submales’, the latter being the property of the former, is entirely tjhe fault of Saudio Arabia, and NO ONE else.
Omar Khadr was a boy raised in a patriarchal family. At the age of 15, he didn’t want to live in hiding with his mother and younger siblings anymore, but asked to be sent to live with “the guys”–who happened to be a group of militants–which his father did, despite his mother’s wishes. They brought the kid with them to a meeting in a village where a gunfight with US soldiers broke out. He may or may not have taken part in that exchange (the evidence against him is sorely lacking), but even if he had, it can be put down to self-defence. Plus, you know, he was *a child* being raised by father who wanted him to be brought up as a patriot soldier. He’s not a psychopathic murderer.
This is a youth suffering PTSD from continual torture and inadequate medical care, not a psychopathic murderer.
Oh, and I’d be pleased to have Omar Khadr in my home any day of the week before I’d put a cardboard box outside for the likes of you, Decker.