The Runaways of Saudi Arabia - Why Women Run and What They Face if They Return

Runaways are any parent's worst nightmare, but what if the minor in question is actually an adult? 

Young women may choose to run away from their homes in Saudi Arabia for many reasons. In most cases, they are fleeing abuse of the worst kind or forced marriages. Regardless of the specific circumstances, these girls face significant dangers in their quest for freedom. They can't take their abuses to the local authorities because nothing will be done to help. It is legal for a man to beat his daughter, his wife, and any woman under his guardianship. The police dismiss the girls because it is family business. They turn them away and as a result of their exposure of their attackers, the abuse gets worse. The number of instances where abuse takes place and the authorities do nothing is sickening. 

Saudi Arabia uses the Male Guardianship Law, which was renamed in 2022 as the Personal Status Law. This law takes away the rights and freedoms of women. Women must have a male guardian responsible for making significant and minor life decisions, such as whether or not they can travel, study, get married, leave their homes, drive, and, yes, attend football matches.

The ones who do make it to another country often find themselves deported back to Saudi Arabia, and many more find themselves kidnapped and taken back by force. Whereby they face grave consequences. Torture, honor killings, and imprisonment are widespread. Many women have been known to take their own lives, feeling like it was their only avenue to freedom. 

The most recent of these cases was in 2023 - The suicide of the daughter of the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia. He was the Saudi Ambassador to Turkey when Jamal Khashoggi was murdered. He beat her, sexually abused her, and told her that the only reason he kept her alive was because her grandfather had left her some shares in a company that she refused to sign over to him. 

Her name was Safiya bint Waleed A. Elkhereiji (صفية بنت وليد بن عبدالكريم الخريجي)

(Sources will remain anonymous for their safety).

Those who do find freedom find that freedom hard to believe. These runaways feel every day like, at any moment, it will be taken away from them again. Family members are often used as pons to lure them back to Saudi Arabia either with emotional blackmail or threats on their lives or the lives of their loved ones. 

The bravery and determination of the young women who run away inspire many. Their actions damage the countries and MBS's reputation as a reformer. Each story reminds us to support human rights and gender equality worldwide. 

The Brave Runaways -

2018 - Tala and Rotana Farea, ages 16 & 23 - Two Saudi Arabian sisters were found bound together in the Hudson River. Sources say that the Saudi Government ordered them and their family to return to Saudi Arabia, but the Saudi Government, of course, denied having any contact. Their deaths were ruled as suicide. 

2019 - Maha al-Subaie, 28, and Wafa al-Subaie, 25 - Also known as the "GeorgiaSisters,". They fled to the former Soviet republic of Georgia - their father and brothers were in hot pursuit, and they said that they would indeed be killed if they returned to Saudi Arabia. - They turned to Social Media for help. They were granted the right to asylum in Georgia. They continue to keep an eye out for their brothers, who will either harm them or take them back by force to face consequences. 

2019 - 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun - Abused & Raped with no outlet that would have helped her file a claim against her family or her attacker, who was a taxi driver. She watched her sister get drugged into submission after she didnt follow the rules laid down by her overzealous brothers. She risked her life to escape. After reaching Thailand, she was threatened with being sent back by agents of Saudi Arabia. She barricaded herself in a hotel room until she was granted asylum. In an interview, she talked about how upsetting it was that once she was accepted for asylum in Canada, her family put out a statement saying that they disowned her. She hopes her story will inspire other Saudi women to - "Be Brave and Free." 

Dua and Dalal AlShowaiki - The two sisters spent five years planning their escape and finally were able to execute their plan while on vacation with their family in Turkey in Early June 2019 - they were physically abused and forced into arranged marriages. 

Nojoud al-Mandeel fled home by jumping from her window into a neighbor's swimming pool. She posted the video online. Someone asked her why she didn't report her father to the police for beating her and burning her, and she said, "Don't tell me to report to the police," explaining that in a previous attempt, police just had her father sign a pledge saying he would not beat her again. 

These are not just teenagers who want to see the world and are seeking asylum because Daddy didnt buy them a pony. As a woman who grew up in Saudi, I am all too aware of the grave risks involved in running away. If caught, we face abuse, solitary confinement in our homes, reeducation, and, in a lot of cases, death at the hands of male relatives for bringing shame to the family honor. The police are not inclined to get involved because most would have done the same if it was their daughter, wife, or sister, and it's legal. 

If we look at the timeline once again like we do when we examine the gift of Women Driving granted to women in Saudi Arabia by "the grace of Muhammed Bin Salman," who in actuality was pressured by the women drive out - we find that once again because of all the runaways in 2019, they had no choice but to grant women the right to travel without their guardian's permission as they say but there is a caveat "So long as your guardian is informed and has no objection" - Meaning it's all a farce to quite down the possible uprising in mass runaways that might have followed.

According to Human Rights Watch, the number is growing. Nearly 800 Saudis applied for asylum in 2018, up from just 195 in 2012. 

This is what we face: a police force that does nothing and a regime that facilitates abuse by allowing men to have guardianship over their wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters.



Elise Evans Martin

Proud Dissident of Saudi Arabia | Female Women's Rights Activist | Author | Speaker