Saudi mother-of-three seeking asylum in Greece begs for help on Twitter saying her life is 'in danger'

Ghada al-Fadl's plea follows several cases where women fleeing the Kingdom have turned to social media for help

A Saudi woman says she risks being torn from her children if she cannot seek asylum in Greece (Ghada el-Fadl)

A Saudi mother seeking asylum in Greece has appealed for help on social media, claiming her life is in danger and she will be separated from her husband and children if she is forced to return to Saudi Arabia.

Ghada al-Fadl, 40 is the latest Saudi woman to turn to Twitter for help after allegedly fleeing abuse within the ultraconservative Kingdom, where female citizens are subject to oppressive male guardianship laws.

Over the weekend the mother-of-three began tweeting human rights groups and agencies including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations to assist her in securing refugee status in Greece. A photo of her passport and the plea was shared and liked nearly 10,000 times.

She told The Independent from Ioannina, in northern Greece, that if her asylum request is rejected she will be forced to go home where she will be torn from her three children and Syrian husband, as her marriage and so family, is not recognised by the Saudi authorities.

The Independent was unable to independently verify her story. The authorities did not reply to a request for comment.

The former resident of Qatif, in eastern Saudi, claimed she left the Kingdom in 2010 for Syria, after her shop was repeatedly raided by religious police because she was a working woman. She also feared being forced into a marriage by her family.

She later married a man in Syria, but claimed the Saudi authorities in 2011 refused to register her marriage on the grounds he was a foreigner.

When the Syrian civil war erupted and Saudi citizens were encouraged to return home, the authorities apparently would not permit Mrs al-Fadl’s husband to accompany her.

The family then fled Damascus in 2017 by crossing illegally into Turkey and taking a migrant dinghy to Greece, where Mrs al-Fadl is trying to claim asylum.

“My life and my children's lives are in danger. We contacted UNCHR to approve our asylum claim but we haven't heard back from them. I'm urgently asking all human rights organisations to save my life and my children's lives,” she said.

“The biggest threat to me is being sent back to Saudi Arabia. My husband and my children cannot enter Saudi Arabia … they are not recognised by the Saudi authorities.

“They will make me go back alone, without my children or husband. The Saudi will divorce me from my husband and I may be forced to marry again because of the customs and traditions of Saudi society, to be harassed again and return to the life of hell, which I had lived before."

She claimed she first fled Saudi Arabia to avoid being forced into a third marriage, after divorcing two abusive husbands, including one she was married off to aged just 13 years old.

She said she applied for asylum in Greece via Intersos rights group and the UN but was told she would likely be rejected.

As of May 2018 Greece was host to more than 60,000 refugees and migrants - many of them fleeing the Syrian conflict, according to UNHCR.

“We are harassed because I have Saudi nationality and they tell us we do not deserve asylum because we are from a very rich and safe country,” she added.

“But if they do not accept my application, I will return home alone without my three children Daniel, who is 8, Ibrahim, who is 3 and Ghada who is just two.”

It is not possible to independently verify Ghada’s story. She shared official documents and several videos which appeared to back up the events.

Saudi Rights group Al-Qst, which has worked on similar cases, told The Independent they were still trying to follow up and verify the case.

But it follows at least four similar cases of vulnerable women fleeing the Kingdom that rights groups have documented since 2017.

Under oppressive guardianship laws Saudi women must secure permission from a male relative to work, marry, travel and even undergo some surgical operations, leaving them at the mercy of their families. Many have tried to escape the Kingdom, where several women's rights activists have also been locked up, and allegedly tortured while campaigning for reforms.

Last Month Apple and Google authorised a new Saudi government-backed app which allows its users to complete administrative tasks such as renewing driver’s licences but also to monitor and control female relatives’ travel.

The app, called Absher, gives men the power to grant or revoke travel permission of their dependents and get text alerts when female relatives use their passports.

It sparked uproar particularly as weeks before two sisters Maha and Wafa al-Subaie, 28 and 25, tweeted that they were trapped in Georgia after fleeing abusive family in Saudi Arabia and seeking asylum. This month they were granted asylum in a third country which was not made public so that they could not be reached by their relatives.

They said they were only able to escape to Georgia because they stole their father’s phone to secure passports and authorisation to fly to Istanbul. They apparently knew dozens of women in a similar position.

Mrs al-Fadl says she will be separated from her three children (pictured here) and husband if she is forced to return to Saudi Arabia (Ghada el-Fadl)

In January Saudi teenager Rahaf al-Qunun had to barricade herself into a hotel room at Bangkok airport when the Thai and Saudi authorities tried to deport her back to the Kingdom where she had allegedly fled abuse by her family.

Her desperate pleas on Twitter were picked up by international media and she was eventually granted asylum in Canada.

Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of young and powerful crown prince Mohamed Bin Salman has eased its oppressive laws on female citizens, eventually allowing women to drive in 2018, and defanging the religious police who once patrolled most cities enforcing modest dress and behavioral codes.

In February Saudi media reported that the authorities were looking to review the male guardianship laws after Rahaf’s case gripped global headlines.

Ghada al-Fadl from Saudi Arabia claims she will be separated from her family if she is not granted asylum in Greece (Ghada el-Fadl)

Saudi’s crown prince himself told The Atlantic that the Kingdom had to “figure out a way to treat this that doesn’t harm families and doesn’t harm the culture” in an interview about guardianship.

But the laws are still in place.

Mrs al-Fadl claimed that she appealed to the Saudi embassy in Beirut where officials warned she would have been immediately removed to Saudi Arabia alone had she not been pregnant at the time.

Saudi officials apparently visited her in her home in Greece three months ago but again did not promise to keep her family together. Similar attempts to appeal to government bodies in Saudi Arabia went unheeded.

“Please help me and help my children,” she added.