When Dubai's privlidged go missing

To come from an upbringing where male individuals around you can practice several forms of power but be forbidden to exercise any of it for yourself is a form of entrapment. It is that way because one becomes compelled to think for themselves and commit the criminal act of attempted independence. An act punishable by law for most women in the Gulf region. Shaikha Latifah may have felt this frustration, even from the comfort of her own palace. There is no hierarchy of oppression, and everybody struggles differently. As a passion that was born out of a coping mechanism, she poured all her love into skydiving and caring for animals.  She is an experienced skydiver with accelerated freefall instructor ratings. As an outsider, this marvelous horse-riding princess doesn’t sound nor look suppressed. In fact, she is living her best life. But sounds and looks don’t matter as much as the seven-year escape and safety plans she had carefully calculated over the years.

The escape plan was mistake-proof. It had to be because she did not want to end up like her sister, Shaikha Shamsa, who attempted to escape two years prior. Shamsa is now confined to her corner that had guardrails to keep her in “her place.” She is now on medications to sedate her “mental instability.” But Latifa knew better. She was jailed herself for over three years by her father’s order. She knew that only her oppressors condemned her liberation as insanity. This new escape cannot afford to fail. 

The escape plan was delicate in calculation. It would begin early in the morning to a drive across the border from her home in Dubai to the other side of Oman. Upon arrival, her shoes tip-toed quickly across the beach towards a jetski that took her and her advocate, martial arts instructor and Finnish friend, across the coastline towards a yacht. It’s been hours, has anyone noticed yet? They meet with a French advocate, better known as an ex-spy in the region, that they have been corresponding with for the past two years. The sail has set and the three week trip on sea has begun. It’s been days, what is going on inland? Does it matter? Finally, a glimpse at freedom among endless seas. Weeks pass, and finally, they arrive near Goa’s coast towards India, the final stop before claiming asylum outside the bounds of “entrapment” illegitimacy. 

Things were so close to a fresh start, it’s quiet out there. Shaikha Latifah was ready for the new life that awaits her  just kilometers away from the indian coast, until gunshots and helicopters immediately ruptured those thoughts. Just as slowly as she had spent years of planning, it was just that quickly that she was taken away from sea, taken away from the boat, on a very different ride back home, and back to square one. Except now, the consequences of this action, this “international scandal” will be handled privately. Panic, and surrender. 

It sounds like a Map of Salt & Stars fairytale. But this is not a novel. This was someone’s real life during February 2018. 

The BCC covered the Mystery of Missing Princess in a sobering documentary that included her video outlining some details of her plan, the advocates who helped, and the consequences that took place. Princess Latifa is an Emirati prince and a member of the Dubai ruling family. Her mother, Houria Lamara, is algerian. Her father, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Maktoum, is the prime minister of the United Aab Emirates. Shaikha Latifa has not been seen in the public eye since 2018. Bravery is rewarded with severe punishment,, while their male counterparts’ acts of disgusting sadistic violence are shrugged off and protected.

Whether Princess Latifa, or hersister, or even her step mom, were able to escape or not, they are nonetheless made an example to many, if not most, that women and young girls who seek independence of male guardianship, will have their agency immensely suffer in custody.

How do you judge the status of women in a given society when its most privileged disappear after an attempted escape without much noise? Where the international stage holds a spotlight on the situation, but the government sprinkles a PR campaign for a new island project? Let’s throw in bicycle-only village for environmental-friendly kicks.

Asides from already having too little information to rely on for a full image of a given situation, reporting can be dangerous. Speaking out against brutality can be lethal when laws exist to send you to prison over a retweet. A corrupt system stays in shape by those who employ it, carefully integrating the rule of law with “what’s fair” in a religious frame that is timeless; no one can question the rule of god. 

The top-down approach is critical for social change, and cannot rely on public policy or legal rescue alone. For most of the privileged in the gulf, it is easier to keep quiet in the comfort of your own large villa, and say “allah kareem” in hope for the best. Although many wait for their hero, they are likely to also criticize the one who spoke their thoughts. And that’s just if we are assuming the person speaking out happens to be a man. The reality is all too clear for women and young girls: don’t do it, or else.

Where are they now?

There have been other tales of young women and activists attempting their great escape. These plans take careful years of planning, and plenty of anxiety to feed a universe. Ironically, it is the most privileged women in the gulf region who often experience the worst torment.

The ending is sour and the majority of the journey is bitter. If there is no hope for girls who come from powerful, “liberal” and supposedly modern families to fend for themselves in the public space, is there hope for the girls who are absolutely not anywhere near the middle class? If someone with the status of a princess cannot defend her life to have some, or any, kind of diplomacy, what’s left for those dominated by their fathers, patriarchal brothers, and submissive mothers? Advocacy is not a safe route here, the battle is full of truth hurts grenades that most systems in the gulf and around the world fail to treat.