Is Wine, Dine And Ramble A Real Freedom That Rahaf Want?

5 mins read

Sumera B Reshi

At last, she has a sigh of relief. Saudi Teenage has become an iconic symbol of freedom, women rights activist and a cynosure of media all over the world why because she fled a country where media says women rights are minimal.

She is the star teenage who challenged the status quo and renounced Islam. Rahaf Al-Qunun felt a real gush of freedom when she reached Canada and posed before shutterbugs with a glass of wine, UNHCR cap and a hoody, an emblem of independent women. Rahaf hopes that her act will set a precedent and allow more Saudi women to fled Saudi Arabia and land in so-called free nations.

Rahaf is another breed of an agent of change who has done what none can at the age of 18. She has freed herself from the shackles of Islam, her tradition, her land and her kith and kin just for a life full of freedom, free will and her sovereignty.

Rahaf was all smiles and hoped her successful escape would speed up reforms in Saudi Arabi’s draconian ‘guardianship’ laws that according to her restricts women’s freedom, right to travel and work. Rahaf doesn’t know women in South Asia are not under any guardianship yet they get raped by the kith and kin and on roadsides.

Women in other parts of the world other than Saudi Arabia are allowed to travel and work and yet they face domestic violence in the hands of in-laws. In South Asia a job is a must to get married else you will have to live in seclusion.  This is the freedom of women in South Asia. And since Rahaf plans to work for women right, she should study women in South Asia who are more controlled by the society than Saudi Arabia.

This brave girl proved that women can go to any extent to seek freedom and restrictions at home are nothing when their world is open to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and so on. She wrote a new chapter of her freedom in a Hollywood style. She went on a vacation to Kuwait with her family, managed to steal her passport, arranged air tickets and a visa and got hold of her dad’s phone.

Doesn’t it seem like a Hollywood movie where the role is being played by Rahaf rather than Angelina Jolie? Yes, it does. She fled her family what media calls out of fear for her life and locked herself in a hotel room and launched a massive and aggressive twitter campaign.

Owing to her overnight popularity on Twitter, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) provided her protection. Since Thailand is a land of smiles, Thai officials didn’t flee her back to Saudi Arabia. “We will not send someone back to die. We will take care of her as best as we can,” said Chief Maj. Gen. Surachate, Thai Immigration.

Undoubtedly she risked her life to seek freedom along a glass of wine. Now she is free from abuse and depression and has a whole life to enjoy independent living.  She has no religion to follow, so no fast, no prayers and no veil. She is a real free human being, however, she has big dreams to get education and work and live a normal free life.

Before landing in Canada, Rahaf planned to seek asylum in Australia where she already has friends, but Australia was taking lot more time to process his asylum and treat her any other asylum seeker, nonetheless, Canada showed great interest in her. Canada offered her quick citizenship.

Saudi – Canada relations are already strained and Rahaf’s episode soured the relations to its next level. There were allegations and counter allegation between the two countries and among the two Rahaf came out successful. Rahaf proved a catharsis for Canada’s bitterness towards Saudi Arabia.

In August 2018, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada’s ambassador to the Kingdom and withdrew its own ambassador from Canada’s Foreign Ministry tweeted support for women’s rights activists who had been arrested. The bitterness reached a level where the Saudis sold Canadian investments and ordered their citizens studying in Canada to leave.  So Rahaf proved a sigh of relief for Canada.

News reports say Rahaf chose Canada, but the reality is Canada embraced her with open arms because she was a woman who fled Saudi Arabia and now Canada has a reason to launch a tirade of allegations against Saudi regime regarding women rights.

Since she is a free soul now, she plans to work in support of freedom of women around the world. “I wasn’t treated respectfully by my family and I wasn’t allowed to be myself and who I want to be,” said Rahaf

Rahaf was in her first year of university and was in Kuwait with her family. She had her passport, and visa for Bangkok and Australia yet she was caged women. Women in a democratic nation in South Asia don’t have passports and visa to seek freedom. Neither do they have access to the internet to launch a campaign? Even though they are free, they get raped on the roadside and the authorities of these so-called democracies don’t provide justice to these women. Yet they are free to work and roam around. Since Rahaf has plans to work for women rights, she should take a dig at South Asia and the plight of women there. Saudi Arabia is not the only country to be taken to task, there are many in the row and Saudi is a focal point because that is a Muslim state.

This poor girl sought freedom from her family. She went to sleep at least satisfied as her father was a governor in Saudi Arabia. She has no idea how many women go unfed to sleep in third and fourth world countries.

She is free from the brutal sadist country called Saudi Arabia and she is free from her sir name as well. She is no more Rahaf. As per Rahaf, her family locked her up for six months after she cut her hair because that is forbidden in Islam for women to dress like a man. Now she is no more a Muslim she can choose any path which leads to greater freedom.

Pity on her family, they locked her but they gave her virtual freedom. The high-end phone, the internet access where from she launched a campaign, the facilities are incomparable to what is been given to women in South Asia.

Rahaf is not the only one who felt choked. The number is unending. Women seek freedom from Abaya. They want to be as free as a man because they are the equal partners in God’s creation. Many women in the past have fled Saudi Arabia and settled in Canada where they are free to live their lives free of religious restrictions.

Mohammad bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia has been liberal than his father. He opened that gates of the information superhighway, lifted the ban on WhatsApp, driving a vehicle and plans to build a beach resort for women where they can wear bikinis, yet they aren’t satisfied. They need more freedom, similar to one woman get in the US, Australia, Canada et al but it comes with a cost.

On average, there are 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States.  Ages 12-34 are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault. Those ages 65 and older are 92 per cent less likely than 12-24-year-olds to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, and 83 per cent less likely than 25-49-year-olds, as stated by the rain.org/statistics.

In present times, women of all hues have stood up for their rights and despite so-called freedom sloganeering and advocacy, in some distant corner of the world a woman is being kidnapped, raped, killed, assaulted, racially insulted or denied a powerful position at her workplace, it brings up the question of whether perceived women’s rights are nothing more than a front to cover the oppression that women still endure. In the name of so-called freedom, the status of women has shrunk to a poster of an advertisement, a selling and a saleable tool rather a commodity. Now Rahaf is as free from all the atrocities and barricades.

She is free to choose anyone as her partner, study as much as she can and travel to unknown places as well. But Rahaf have you achieved freedom with a glass of wine, trimmed hair and wearing short? If that is your perceived freedom, then I wish you all the best for your freedom and pray that you really work for women rights rather than vanish in the Western concept of freedom.   

 

 

 

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