Saudi Woman Barricades Herself in Thai Hotel Fearing Relatives Will Kill Her at Home

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun © rahaf84427714 / Twitter

A young Saudi woman has barricaded herself into a hotel in Thailand, saying that she has fled from abusive relatives and will be killed if sent back home. Her claims have caught the attention of human rights campaigners.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, a Saudi national, says she intended to seek asylum in Australia but a representative from the Saudi Embassy seized her passport in Bangkok airport on Sunday.

She has barricaded herself in a hotel room in the airport’s transit zone out of fear that she will be deported to her home country. Thai immigration officials initially indicated that the woman would be sent back on Monday, but later clarified that she wouldn’t be deported immediately, citing safety reasons.

“If deporting her would result in her death, we definitely wouldn’t want to do that,” immigration chief Surachet Hakparn noted.

Al-Qunun’s lawyers, meanwhile, said that an injunction calling for deportation procedures to be blocked was rejected in court. The legal team is planning to appeal the decision.

In a video shared on social media, al-Qunun said that she will not leave the room until she has a meeting with UN officials.

The woman told human rights campaigners she had escaped from physical and psychological abuse that she suffers at the hands of her relatives. She managed to flee during her family’s visit to Kuwait, which, unlike Saudi Arabia, doesn’t require a male relative’s approval for a woman to leave the country. Al-Qunun now fears that she will be jailed upon returning home or even killed.

“My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair,” al-Qunun told AFP.

“I'm sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail.”

Human Rights Watch appealed to Bangkok to halt the woman’s planned deportation. The organization’s Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson blasted the Thai authorities for their “heartless lack of concern” for al-Qunun’s wellbeing.

The woman’s pleas also caught the attention of Georg Schmidt, the German ambassador to the nation. He wrote that he would stay “in touch” with local officials concerning al-Qunun’s fate.

1 Christian Killed for Their Faith Every 6 Minutes in 2016 – Study

Christians - the most persecuted religious group in the world

© Dipak Kumar / Reuters

Ninety thousand Christians were murdered for their faith around the globe this year, which amounts to one being killed every six minutes, Italy’s CESNUR religious study group said.

Christians are now the most persecuted religious group in the world, Massimo Introvigne, director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), told Vatican Radio.

According to CESNUR statistics, around 500,000 Christians around the globe are unable to practice their faith completely freely, Introvigne said.

Seventy percent of the killings of Christians in 2016 occurred during tribal conflicts in Africa, he said, referring to data from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.

The large number of deaths may be explained by the fact that many devoted Christians refuse to take up arms, he added.

The remaining 30 percent, or 27,000, lost their lives in terrorist attacks, the destruction of Christian villages, or persecution by the authorities, Introvigne said.

However, he said that the number of Christian killings has decreased, compared to 105,000 deaths in 2015.

The data in the report may be incomplete as it doesn’t include India and China, where the Christian community survives in secrecy, he added.

Some Christian communities in India are not secretive at all.

The religious study group is due to release the full statistics on Christian persecution in January.

Introvigne also said that the Catholic Church is currently considering sanctification for Christian individuals killed by terrorist group Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

This is bizarre! Sanctification (setting apart) is not something that can be bestowed by the church, and certainly not posthumously; it is bestowed by Jesus Christ to all who 'look upon' the Cross. Christians are told in the Bible to 'pursue' it - that is to walk 'in Christ' not in worldly ambitions. Martyrs would seem to epitomize sanctification.

Earlier this year, the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, said that during the five years of the Syrian conflict, the Christian population of the country had declined from 1.5 million to 500,000.

Most of the remaining Christians currently reside in areas controlled by the Syrian government after fleeing the jihadists.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that an agreement had been reached on a ceasefire in Syria and the start of peace talks, adding that the deal is “fragile” and requires a cautious approach.