The United Arab Emirates (UAE) this year was able to narrowly avert a humiliating affront when princess Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum’s escape from the kingdom was arrested at sea in March.
Months after the attempt, the emirate released the first photographs of the ‘runaway princess’ to prove she is home, confirming she was safe with her family.
Here’s why this is significant
Her Highness Latifa, one of the daughters of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, had made an unsuccessful attempt to flee the country in March. A source close to the Dubai government told AFP in April that the 32-year-old princess had been “brought back” to Dubai.
But she had not been seen publicly since her recapture, which provoked rights groups to urge the royal family to reveal her whereabouts. Sheikha Latifa’s disappearance prompted an UK-based advocacy group “Detained in Dubai” in particular, to take up her case and alert the UN human rights commission.
The foreign ministry said the statement was initially delivered on Friday to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mary Robinson herself had served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights between 1997 and 2002.
What the UAE said
This week, the state released photographs of her at home, visited by former Irish president Mary Robinson. The UAE’S announcement on Monday “rebuts false allegations and provided evidence that Her Highness Sheikha Latifa was at home and living with her family in Dubai.”
“At the request of the family, on 15th December 2018, Mary Robinson… met with Her Highness Sheikha Latifa in Dubai,” state-run WAM news agency quoted from the statement by the foreign ministry. “During her visit to Dubai, Mary Robinson was reassured that Sheikha Latifa is receiving the necessary care and support she requires,” the agency further reported.
Backdrop of escape and return
Before fleeing, princess Latifa had appeared in an emotional YouTube video in March where she announced about her impending plans to escape, explaining her reasons for wanting to escape her father and the restrictions imposed by her family.
The 40-minute video, where she claimed to want to start a new life away from the oppression in the strict Arab state, was widely distributed after it became apparent that her attempt at escape had been foiled.
According to a few sources, Sheikha Latifa had managed to flee to Oman and boarded a chartered yacht before being surrounded by the Indian navy and towed back to the UAE by armed coastguards. She had even posed for a selfie on the way to the Oman border before heading for India, intending to fly to the US and claim asylum.Hoping to escape the authority of her father, the billionaire ruler of Dubai, she claimed in a recent documentary on her life about a previous escape attempt when she was a teenager, following which she had reportedly been tortured and jailed for three years. The princess has since lived under a strict curfew and chaperoned each time she left her royal palace, she claimed according to Daily Mail.In the latest attempt, she had been accompanied by her friends Finnish martial arts instructor Tina Jauhainsen and French spy Herve Jaubert who owned the yacht in question. Both of them were also taken back to Dubai and interrogated for days and accused of kidnap.This history of the princess’ flight highlights the elaborate and expensive security system developed by Israel for Dubai authorities to locate anyone in the country by tracking their phone. It also shed light on the sinister totalitarian state most tourists choose to ignore amidst the glitz and glamour of Dubai.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius