Rahaf Mohammed (formerly Rahaf Mohammed Mutlaq al-Qunun Al-Shammari; ar, رهف محمد مطلق القنون الشمري) is a Saudi refugee and author who was detained by Thai authorities on 5 January 2019 while transiting through

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

airport, en route from Kuwait to Australia. She had intended to claim asylum in Australia and escape her family who she says abused her and threatened to kill her for, among other reasons, leaving Islam, an act that is a

capital offence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

under Saudi law. After she had appealed for help on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and gained significant attention, Thai authorities abandoned their plans to forcibly return her to Kuwait (from where she would be

repatriated Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

to Saudi Arabia), and she was taken under the protection of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

and granted

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

status. On 11 January 2019 she was granted

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

in Canada and arrived in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

the next day.

Early life

Rahaf was born on 11 March 2000. Her father is the town governor of al-Sulaimi in the Ha'il Region. She has nine siblings. She has claimed that her family had locked her up for months, subjecting her to physical and psychological abuse. Her father however denied abusing her. Rahaf also said that her cousin threatened to kill her because she no longer follows

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

Apostasy in Islam Apostasy in Islam ( ar, ردة, or , ) is commonly defined as the abandonment of Islam by a Muslims, Muslim, in thought, word, or through deed. An apostate from Islam is referred to by using the Arabic language, Arabic and Glossary of Islam ...

is a crime

punishable by death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

according to the

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

law of Saudi Arabia Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Detention at the airport hotel

While Mohammed was on vacation with her family in Kuwait, she left them and boarded a flight to

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. She intended to continue on another flight to seek

asylum in Australia Asylum in Australia has been granted to many refugees since 1945, when half a million Europeans displaced by World War II were given asylum. Since then, there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East, ...

. A tourist visa had been issued to her that permitted entry into Australia. Her family reportedly filed a

missing person A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, de ...

report after her escape from Kuwait. Upon arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, a man greeted her, not disclosing that he was a Saudi embassy official, and told her that he needed her passport so that he could help her obtain a Thai visa. He left with her passport and did not return. Mohammed never intended to leave the airport's transit area and therefore did not require a Thai visa. She was detained by Thai authorities at the Miracle Transit Hotel within the airport. Mohammed opened an account on Twitter which spread rapidly because of the international lawyer

Mahmoud Refaat Mahmoud Refaat (Arabic: محمود رفعت‎, romanized: Mahmood Rifaat; born April 25, 1978) is an international relations scholar (president of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations), writer, and lawyer. ...

's reactions on Twitter who changed the situation by his intervention and rescued Rahaf from potential deportation, and in a series of posts said that she had renounced Islam and was concerned that she could be murdered by her family if deported to Saudi Arabia. She also said she had barricaded herself in her hotel room, was refusing to exit until she met with UN representatives, claimed refugee status, and implored embassy officials of various Western nations to assist her in seeking asylum. This drew world-wide support, with more than half a million tweets using the "#SaveRahaf" hashtag. In one tweet, she shared a picture of her passport. Australian ABC journalist

Sophie McNeill Sophie McNeill is an Australian journalist, television presenter, author and human rights activist. She is best known for her work reporting from conflict zones. She was a reporter with the ABC's investigative program Four Corners and is a fo ...

flew to Bangkok and snuck into her room and barricaded herself with Mohammed to protect her. While barricaded Mohammed also allowed a friend to tweet on her behalf. Lawyers in Thailand filed an injunction to prevent her forced deportation. The injunction was subsequently dismissed, though an appeal was planned. Thailand's chief of immigration at the

Royal Thai Police The Royal Thai Police (RTP) ( th, สำนักงานตำรวจแห่งชาติ; ) is the national police force of Thailand. The RTP employs between 210,700 and 230,000 officers, roughly 17 percent of all civil servants (excludi ...

Surachate Hakparn subsequently confirmed that authorities in the country had acted at the behest of Saudi Arabia. Mohammed was scheduled to be forcibly repatriated on a flight to Kuwait on 7 January 2019. She barricaded her room to block entry, while at times live streaming airport staff trying to get her to leave the room. She refused to leave. Upon intervention of the international prominent lawyer

, the Thai government later released a statement saying that it would not deport her. François Zimeray, a lawyer chosen by the

European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) ( ar, المنظمة الأوروبية السعودية لحقوق الإنسان) is a Europe-based human rights organisation for documenting and promoting human rights in Saudi Arabia. ...

to defend Mohammed in Bangkok against deportation back to Saudi Arabia, judged that Mohammed's tweets had played an overwhelming role in preventing her deportation. Zimeray stated that the Thai authorities' attitude changed "completely" in "a few minutes" when they realized the strength of international support for Mohammed. Mohammed revealed in a later interview that she wrote a goodbye letter and decided that she would end her life if she was to be forced back to Saudi Arabia.

Initial discrepancies in Thai government's accounts of events

In an initial assessment on 5 January 2019, Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson said "the Thai government... (was then) manufacturing a story that she tried to apply for a visa and it was denied... in fact, she had an onward ticket to go to Australia, she didn't want to enter Thailand in the first place." Two days later on 7 January 2019, after international pressure, the Thai official overseeing immigration in the case, Police General Surachate Hakparn, was seen walking beside Mohammed, and stated that "We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law." Subsequently, she was placed under the care of the

(UNHCR), her passport, which had indeed included a valid Australian tourist visa, was returned to her, and formal arrangements for the establishment of her long-term asylum status began.

UN involvement

The UNHCR issued a statement on 7 January, stating that: Mohammed subsequently left the airport in the care of the agency, which later granted her refugee status and asked the Australian government to consider granting her asylum. Australian Home Affairs Minister

Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sinc ...

stated in a radio interview with journalists that Mohammed seemed to be safe in Thailand. With growing concerns over her safety and an unclear timeline how long Australia would take to process her application, the UNHCR referred her case to Canada and her application was processed within several hours.

Asylum in Canada

On 11 January 2019, Mohammed flew to Toronto via

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, having been granted asylum by Canada, as a " resettled refugee". The UNHCR said this had been arranged "on a fast-track 'emergency' basis". She was greeted at

Toronto Pearson International Airport Lester B. Pearson International Airport , commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport, is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surro ...

by Canadian

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

Chrystia Freeland Christina Alexandra Freeland (born August 2, 1968) is a Canadian politician serving as the tenth and current deputy prime minister of Canada since 2019 and the Minister of Finance (Canada), minister of finance since 2020. A member of the Libe ...

Reaction

Mohammed's family released a statement

disowning Disownment occurs when a parent renounces or no longer accepts a child as a family member, usually due to reprehensible actions leading to serious emotional consequences. Different from giving a child up for adoption, it is a social and interpers ...

her: "We are the family of ahafMohammed al-Qunun in Saudi Arabia. We disavow the so-called 'Rahaf al-Qunun' the mentally unstable daughter who has displayed insulting and disgraceful behavior." After learning about her family disavowing her, she decided to drop al-Qunun from her name and to be known as "Rahaf Mohammed." Abdul-Ilah al-Shuaibi, Saudi Arabia's

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

in Bangkok, was quoted as saying, in a meeting with the Thai immigration office: "When ahaffirst arrived in Thailand, she opened a new witter accountand the followers reached about 45,000 within one day... I wish you had taken her phone, it would have been better than akingher passport." Mohammed's case has been compared to those of

Dina Ali Lasloom Dina Ali Lasloom ( ar, دينا علي السلوم; born 29 March 1993) is a Saudi woman who attempted to seek asylum in Australia to escape Saudi guardianship laws, but was forcibly repatriated to Saudi Arabia from the Philippines. She was st ...

and

Hakeem al-Araibi Hakeem al-Araibi ( ar, حكيم العريبي; born 7 November 1993) is an Australian footballer of Bahraini descent who currently plays for St Albans Saints in NPL Victoria. He is a dissident, who fled to Australia in 2014 and subsequently ...

. Stephen Kalin, writing for

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

, described Mohammed's case as triggering a new phase in the

Saudi anti male-guardianship campaign The anti male-guardianship campaign is an ongoing campaign by Saudi women against the requirement to obtain permission from their male guardian for activities such as getting a job, travelling internationally or getting married. Wajeha al-Huwaid ...

Reaction in Saudi Arabia

After she was resettled in Canada, the Canadian government was accused by Saudi media of "an attempt at stirring up civil strife by inciting the Kingdom’s teenage girls to abandon social mores" in ''

Okaz ''Okaz'' ( ar, عكاظ) is an Arabic Saudi Arabian daily newspaper located in Jeddah. The paper was launched in 1960 and its sister publication is ''Saudi Gazette''. The paper is simultaneously printed in both Riyadh and Jeddah and has offices a ...

''.

Personal life

In 2022, she released her first book, titled ''Rebel: My Escape From Saudi Arabia to Freedom''. She is bisexual.

References

External links

Documentary of Rahaf from inside the barricaded hotel in Bangkok all the way to Canada
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohammed, Rahaf 2000 births 2019 in Canada 2019 in Saudi Arabia 2019 in Thailand Rahaf Bisexual women Canadian people of Saudi Arabian descent Canadian women's rights activists Human rights abuses in Thailand Human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia Living people People from Ha'il Province Applicants for refugee status in Canada Right of asylum in Australia Saudi Arabian former Muslims Saudi Arabian refugees Violence against women in Saudi Arabia Women in Saudi Arabia Women's rights in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabian atheists 21st-century atheists Former Muslims turned agnostics or atheists Former Muslim critics of Islam Canadian critics of Islam