#SaveRahaf - Fleeing Saudi Woman, Facing Deportation, Is Allowed to Remain in Thailand

By Richard C. Paddock

An 18-year-old Saudi woman who expressed fear that she would be killed if sent back to her family was allowed to remain in Thailand on Monday evening, ending a tense 48-hour drama at Bangkok’s main international airport.

The young woman, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, was on the verge of being deported earlier in the day at the request of the Saudi government. But after she and human rights advocates mounted a global social media campaign, Thai immigration officials agreed not to send her home.

“Thailand is a land of smiles. We will not send someone back to die,” said the country’s immigration chief, Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn. “We will take care of her as best as we can.”

After meeting with Ms. Alqunun and officials from the United Nations refugee agency Monday afternoon, General Surachate said that Ms. Alqunun had been allowed to leave the airport with agency representatives. They will take up to 10 days to process her request for refugee status and find a country that will accept her.

Earlier in the day, she posted a short video from an airport hotel room in which she had barricaded herself, saying she would not leave without seeing United Nations officials. “I want asylum,” Ms. Alqunun said in a clear, calm voice.

Every woman in Saudi Arabia has a male “guardian,” typically a father, husband, brother or uncle. A woman must have permission from her guardian to do an array of things, including to travel, obtain a passport, marry or divorce.

King Salman relaxed some of the rules in 2017, allowing a woman, under some circumstances, to go to school, get a job, or rent an apartment without her guardian’s permission, but those changes are not always observed in practice. Women’s rights advocates say that the police often require a guardian’s permission for a woman to report a crime, making it all but impossible for her to report domestic abuse committed by her guardian.

Human Rights Watch has called the guardianship system “the most significant impediment to realizing women’s rights in the country, effectively rendering adult women legal minors.”

In a telephone interview with The New York Times, Ms. Alqunun said she had slipped away from her family on Saturday during a trip to Kuwait, where women are allowed to travel without a male guardian, and had flown on her own to Bangkok.

She said that she had planned to spend a few days in Thailand and continue to Australia, for which she had a visa, and that she planned to request asylum. But on arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, she was intercepted by a man she identified as Saudi who said he would help her. Instead, he took her passport and brought over Thai immigration officials, who said they would send her back to Kuwait at her family’s request.

The deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, Phil Robertson, who played a crucial role in mobilizing support for Ms. Alqunun, said he was pleased with the results of the fast-paced campaign.Thousands of people called the United Nations refugee agency to express support for Ms. Alqunun, and ambassadors worked the phones to help find a solution, he said.

“Today really was a good day for the cause of human rights around the world, with Rahaf’s tremendous courage and resilience being met with a global surge of sympathy for her,” he said. “It all came together to persuade Thailand to do the right thing.” Thailand, which has been run by a military regime since 2014, is not a signatory to international agreements allowing travelers to seek asylum and was not bound to honor her asylum request.

Ms. Alqunun’s plight has attracted attention around the world. She opened a Twitter account over the weekend and already has tens of thousands of followers.

Ms. Alqunun told The Times that she had been planning her escape since she was 16. She said her brother and other family members often had beat her, and that she was once locked in a room for six months because she had cut her hair in a way disapproved by her family. “They will kill me because I fled and because I announced my atheism,” she said. “They wanted me to pray and to wear a veil, and I didn’t want to.”

General Surachate said that Ms. Alqunun was free to go wherever she wanted in Thailand and that there were no government restrictions on her now that she had entered the country.

She will be under the care of the United Nations refugee agency until her departure, he said.

“There are no conditions,” he said. “There’s no detention or control over her.”

He said officials initially had planned to deport Ms. Alqunun because of her lack of money and concrete travel plans.

“Once we heard the update on the situation, that she was in trouble, that it was life-threatening if she went back,” he said, “Thailand welcomed her.”