“I’ve been mistreated & oppressed all of my life...Women are treated like subhumans. My father...can’t continue to do what he’s been doing to us all” Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum,daughter of #Dubai ruler.Imagine how much worse for ordinary women theguardian.com/world/2018/dec…
Latifa is 2nd of Sheikh’s daughters to try to flee life of caged luxury &then vanish after reports of recapture.Her older sister,Shamsa,was seized on streets of Cambridge after fleeing family’s Surrey estate in 2000,in apparent abduction never fully investigated by British police
Latifa‘s bid to escape & her repatriation w/assistance of foreign govt reminds me of #Saudi Dina Ali Lasloum who tried to escape forced marriage but was detained at Manila airport until uncles came, beat her up, dragged her onto plane home w/limbs bound google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…
Adult women who try to escape abuse are repatriated with the help of foreign governments as if they are property that has gone missing and is being returned to its rightful owner.
Latifa, her sister, and Dina’s case also call to mind that days before #Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman embarked on US tour in March, the #UAE RENDERED #Saudi feminist Loujain al-Hathloul back to Saudi where she was jailed, released & silenced. washingtonpost.com/world/middle_e… 
Loujain was arrested again in May at the order of Mohamed Bin Salman along with other #Saudi women’s rights activists who are being tortured
When I wrote this 2012 essay (that I turned into my book) on misogyny in the Middle East & North Africa I lost friends & was accused of reductionism, essentializing and a whole bunch of other big words that all mean DENIAL. I stand by every thing I wrote. google.com/amp/s/foreignp…
And ICYMI: if you have been following me here for at least 5mins, you would know I am an enemy to patriarchy everywhere. I have always maintained that misogyny is universal: it exists on a spectrum and no part of the world has dismantled patriarchy.
