The story of a runaway Arab bride that ended with a happy ending

Despite the blatant discrimination, few women in Saudi Arabia dare to go against the age-old foundations, because in case of failure, they have to pay with their lives. But there are examples when a girl was not afraid to make an attempt to escape from the captivity of medieval customs, and she succeeded. Here is one of these stories with a happy ending.

Source: BBC

Like most women in Saudi Arabia, 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed al-Kunun was waiting for a wedding with an indifferent man and a monotonous life in four walls with rare outings under the supervision of her husband or his relatives. However, the girl was not at all pleased with this prospect and, without waiting for the wedding, she ran away from her family when she was visiting Kuwait.

Realizing that she would not be left alone at home, Rahaf bought a plane ticket and flew to Thailand. Arriving in Bangkok, the girl was cunningly imprisoned by fellow countrymen in a hotel room located at the airport. We can say that she was lucky — al-Kunun was able to lock herself in the room, filling the doors with furniture for reliability. After that, the fugitive informed the country's authorities that she did not plan to return to her homeland and asked for asylum in the Kingdom of Thailand.

Rahaf also tried to get as many people in the world to know about her as possible — she posted her story on social networks with a request to users to spread it among friends. The girl said that if she was put on a plane and sent back to Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, she would be in mortal danger.

The story was widely publicized and the Thai authorities were forced to meet the girl halfway and granted her the right to stay in the country for 5-7 days while her case is being considered by a special commission. After that, Rahaf Mohammed al-Kunun opened the doors of her shelter and agreed to meet with officials and journalists.

According to the girl, she wanted to be as far away from her relatives as possible and would try to get asylum in Australia. The images taken in Bangkok show that Rahaf was traveling exclusively accompanied by police and representatives of the UN mission. In the first interview, the fugitive said that she felt absolutely safe in such a company, and also said that she had been returned her previously selected passport.

The passport story deserves special attention. As soon as Rahaf set foot on the land of Thailand, right at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport, a man approached her and, under the pretext of helping to obtain asylum in a foreign country, took away her passport. Everyone knows that the Arabs have long arms, and they manage to get their women back in the most hopeless situations.

It is not known exactly who the stranger was — an employee of the Kuwait Airways airline, on which the girl flew, or a Saudi diplomat. Only one thing is obvious — the man was in no way interested in Rahaf's escape. The girl was convinced of this very quickly when a new acquaintance returned with five other men, and they informed her that in the near future she would have to return to her family.

The fact is that Rahaf al-Kunun is the daughter of a high government official who has huge opportunities not only in Saudi Arabia, but also abroad. The girl has a large family with 9 brothers and sisters, and after the flight, the stain fell on all her relatives. It is not surprising that the elder al-Kunun used all possible levers to return the fugitive.

The girl was taken to the very hotel room where she later held a siege, but at the same time forgot to withdraw her mobile phone. It was this device connected to the Internet that helped Rahaf inform Twitter users about the dangerous situation, as well as contact Thai officials. After the story of the runaway bride became the property of 66 thousand social network users who subscribed to her account for two days, the people who imprisoned the girl in the hotel no longer appeared.

The girl's father and brother arrived in Thailand, who were eager to meet, but Rahaf refused to communicate with relatives. The men claim that violence has never been used against her, but the girl preferred to keep her distance from them by flying to Seoul. Rahaf al-Kunun stayed there for a short time and immediately went overseas to Canada.

A lot of people around the world were worried about the fate of the girl, and when she tweeted a photo from the plane flying to Toronto, they all breathed a sigh of relief. The pictures show that the girl is flying business class, drinking wine and eating caviar.

At the Toronto airport, Rahaf was met by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland with a bouquet of flowers. Hugging the girl, the minister told the press: "This is Rahaf Mohammed al-Kunun, a very brave new Canadian." After that, it became clear to even the most skeptical observers of this story that it had come to a happy end and the girl would now be fine.

A photo of a happy al-Kunun, wearing a UN baseball cap and a sweatshirt with the inscription "Canada", flew around news sites around the world. The girl was asked to choose a country where she would like to live, and she decided to go not to warm Australia, but to an exotic country near the Arctic Circle with its cold.

Unfortunately, stories of flight from Arab countries rarely end in a happy ending. The last unsuccessful attempt to start a new life ended tragically.

Al-Kunun's countryman, Saudi Dina Ali Laslum, fled her country in 2017 and sought asylum at Manila airport. The Filipino authorities did not heed the pleas of the 24-year-old girl and expelled her to her homeland. Dean had to be taken to the plane by force and, obviously, the girl had something to be afraid of — after the door of the liner closed behind her, no one heard about Ali Laslum anymore.