Gulf women activists still face persecution despite hopes of reform
Saudi Arabia's women still languish under the country's system of male guardianship, even as the case of Rahaf al-Qunun, who barricaded herself in a hotel room at the Bangkok airport, refusing to go back to Saudi, has brought renewed attention to the situation of women in the kingdom.
A Saudi woman resisting deportation from Thailand has won the first round today, after United Nations officials were granted access to her and she was formally admitted into the country. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, had barricaded herself inside a hotel room at Bangkok’s international airport after immigration officials tried to force her on board a flight to Kuwait City on Monday. Qunun then embarked on a campaign via Twitter, appealing to the United Nations, Western governments and rights groups to help her win asylum. She said she faced death if she were to return to her family, since she had renounced Islam. Qunun had planned to travel to Australia when Thai authorities, ostensibly tipped off by her family in Kuwait, intercepted her.
The woman's plight, relayed through videos she posted of herself defiantly shoving a mattress against her hotel room door, is a further example of the risks faced by Saudi and other Muslim women in the Middle East when they challenge a rigidly patriarchal system that is often enshrined in law. “My brothers and family and the Saudi Embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait,” she told Reuters. “My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things.” The jeans-clad brunette said a Saudi diplomat seized her passport when she arrived in Bangkok on Saturday. Saudi officials have denied this.
