A Saudi woman who was detained at the airport in Bangkok said she would be killed if Thai immigration officials returned her to Saudi Arabia. The UN refugee agency is expected to approve her asylum claim.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/Human Rights Watch/Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun
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Thailand halts plans to deport Saudi girl fleeing abuse
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A young Saudi woman who says she is fleeing her family can stay in Thailand and is expected to be granted asylum in another country, the head of Thailand's immigration police said on Monday.
Major General Surachate Hakparn said the woman, 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, had been placed "under the care" of the UN's refugee agency.
"The High Commission told me she will be granted asylum in a third country within five days," he added.
Alqunun says she has suffered physical and psychological abuse by family members and fears for her life if she is returned to Saudi Arabia.
Alqunun gained international attention over the weekend after she landed at Bangkok's international airport from Kuwait on her way to Australia, where she planned to claim asylum.
On Twitter, she told followers she had barricaded herself in a hotel room near the airport after Thai officials stopped her from boarding a connecting flight to Australia.
Thai police said they denied her passage because she did not have a return ticket or an Australian visa.
But Human Rights Watch (HRW) told DW they backed Alqunun's claim that Saudi and Kuwaiti officials had forcibly taken her passport and visa after her flight arrived in Bangkok.
Alqunun got her passport back from UN officials after Thai authorities granted them entry to her hotel room on Monday.
Before she was put under the UNHCR's care, Alqunun's lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman tried to file an injunction at a Thai court to block her deportation, but it was swiftly rejected due to a lack of evidence.
Alqunun says her male relatives in Saudi Arabia beat her, threatened to kill her and locked her in her room for six months for cutting her hair. While the family was on holiday in Kuwait, she escaped on a flight to Bangkok, HRW said.
"She is very frightened, she is very tired. She has been awake for four days," Phil Robertson, HRW deputy director, told DW.
Thailand usually returns refugees and asylum-seekers to their country of origin. The southeast Asian country does not recognize their status and often arrests them before deporting them.
Germany's ambassador to Thailand, Georg Schmidt, wrote on Twitter that German officials shared "the considerable concern for Rahaf Mohammed and are in contact with the Thai side and with the embassies of the countries she has turned to."
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has lifted its driving ban on women and made other strides toward granting women equal rights. But progress is incredibly slow, and lags far behind the rest of the world.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Ammar
1955: First school for girls, 1970: First university for women
Girls have not always been able to go to school like these students in Riyadh. Enrollment at the first school for girls, Dar Al Hanan, began in 1955. The Riyadh College of Education, the first higher education institution for women, opened in 1970.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Nureldine
2001: ID cards for women
At the start of the 21st century, women could get personal ID cards for the first time. The cards are the only way for them to prove who they are, for example in disputes relating to inheritance or property issues. IDs were only issued with the permission of a woman's guardian, though, and to the guardian instead of directly to the woman. Only in 2006 were women able to get IDs without permission.
Image: Getty Images/J. Pix
2005: End of forced marriages - on paper
Saudi Arabia banned forced marriage in 2005, but marriage contracts continue to be hammered out between the husband-to-be and the father of the bride, not the bride herself.
Image: Getty Images/A.Hilabi
2009: The first female government minister
In 2009, King Abdullah appointed the first female minister to Saudi Arabia's government. Noura al-Fayez became the deputy education minister for women's affairs.
Image: Foreign and Commonwealth Office
2012: First female Olympic athletes
Saudi Arabia agreed to allow female athletes to compete on the national team for the Olympics for the first time. One of them was Sarah Attar, who ran the women's 800 meter race at the 2012 Olympics in London wearing a headscarf. Before the Games, there was speculation that the Saudi Arabian team might be banned for gender discrimination if they didn't allow women to participate.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J.-G.Mabanglo
2013: Women are allowed to ride bicycles and motorbikes
Saudi leaders allowed women to ride bicycles and motorbikes for the first time in 2013 — but only in recreational areas, wearing full Islamic body covering and with a male relative present.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
2013: First women in the Shura
In February 2013, King Abdullah swore in the first 30 women to the Shura, Saudi Arabia's consultative council. This allowed women to be appointed to these positions, soon they would be allowed to actually run for office...
Image: REUTERS/Saudi TV/Handout
2015: Women can vote and get elected
In Saudi Arabia's 2015 municipal elections, women were able to vote and run for office for the first time. By contrast, New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote, in 1893. Germany did so in 1919. At the 2015 Saudi polls, 20 women were elected to municipal roles in the absolute monarchy.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Batrawy
2017: First female head of the Saudi stock exchange
In February 2017, the Saudi stock exchange names the first female chairperson in its history, Sarah Al Suhaimi.
Image: pictur- alliance/abaca/Balkis Press
2018: Women to be allowed in sports stadiums
On October 29, 2017, the country's General Sports Authority announced that women would be allowed into sports stadiums for the first time. Three previously male-only arenas will soon be open for women as well, starting in early 2018.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Nureldine
2018: Driving ban eliminated
On September 26, 2017, Saudi Arabia announced that women would soon be allowed to drive, causing a flurry of driving courses for women to prepare for June 2018, when they would no longer need permission from their male guardian to get a driver's license or need their guardian in the car when they drive.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Jamali
2019: Saudi women to be notified by text message if they are divorced
The new law, designed to protect them from having their marriage ended without their knowledge, will allow women to check their marital status online or visit a court to get a copy of divorce papers. Human rights defenders say the law does nothing to address the fact that Saudi women can only obtain divorces in exceedingly limited cases — such as with her husband’s consent or if he has harmed her.
