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Bisexual woman reveals horrors of Saudi Arabia, says she fled country in secret after being raped

At age 18, she was tragically raped by a driver, and the incident prompted her to plot her escape from Saudi Arabia with the help of an underground network of women.

A Saudi woman has revealed in a new book how she plotted to escape her oppressive parents and was eventually granted asylum in Canada. Rahaf Mohammed, 21, explained in 'Rebel: My Escape from Saudi Arabia to Freedom' how her family controlled what she wore, whom she spoke to, or even how she could sit.

Frustrated with the oppression, Rahaf began rebelling as a teenager and sexually experimented with men and women in secrecy. At age 18, she was tragically raped by a driver, and the incident prompted her to plot her escape from Saudi Arabia with the help of an underground network of women in an online chat room. Rahaf grabbed international headlines in December 2018 after she barricaded herself in an airport hotel room in Bangkok so she couldn't be sent home to her family. She told authorities how she was being repressed by her family and was finally handed over to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and resettled in Canada.

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Rahaf was born into a wealthy albeit a strict family of Sunni Muslims from the al-Shammari tribe that once ruled over the Ha'il region. She was the fifth child of seven, and her life was fully controlled by her brothers and mother. "One day my mother struck a match and held the flame very near to my body," Rahaf recalled in her book. "She said, 'Your body will get burnt in life and even in the afterlife if you soil your honor or your family's honor.'' 

But she began to rebel as she became a teenager, scouring the internet for images of girls who spoke freely of drinking, having sex, and experimenting with men and women in private. She said she and her friends started talking about prohibited subjects and fantasized about getting rid of the veil and being free. At one point, Rahaf came across a Twitter account for a Saudi woman who had managed to flee to Canada. That woman allegedly gave her a secret code to access a website that could help her get out of Saudi.

The private chat room reportedly offered her the information she needed about life in a foreign country and how she could obtain a travel permit without her guardian knowing, as well as how to apply for a visa and book an airline ticket while concealing her identity. Rahaf learned that there were many Saudi women who were leading double lives -- learning to drive in secret and playing football with their pals. 

Rahaf registered at the University of Ha'il in the autumn of 2018. There, she enjoyed some more freedom to remove her niqab or walk down the street alone. One day, however, a driver whom she hired to take her across town, drove her to the mountains and raped her. She confided in a close friend about what happened but was warned not to tell anyone else. "There it was right in front of me – all the evidence I needed to understand where girls stand in Saudi," she wrote. "The driver who raped me knew he would never have to be accountable for his crime...If anyone knew that I was soiled goods, I would have to be killed – it would be a classic case of honor killing."

Rahaf subsequently made up her mind to escape and followed the advice of her new friends online to begin saving money in a friend's bank account. She was eventually able to apply for an Australian visa online while holidaying with her family in Kuwait, and was able to leave the country -- never to return. Rahaf described the nerve-wracking week she spent with her family in Kuwait, and how she desperately sought the perfect moment to escape.

She somehow got a hold of her passport and booked a ticket from Kuwait to Thailand. She also booked a hotel room in Bangkok for three days and left the hotel in a taxi. "I asked the driver to take me to the airport and then connected to the internet through his phone's hotspot," she wrote. "Through messaging apps, I texted my friends. I didn't feel scared at all. I even did a video chat from the taxi and kept saying, 'I did it, I did it.'"

However, Rahaf was faced with another major hurdle. Thai immigration officials denied her entry and she spent three days at Bangkok airport. She decided to barricade herself in a hotel room to avoid deportation and began posting on social media. She quickly amassed a huge following, and Thai authorities eventually allowed her to enter the country. Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency UNHCR began seeking asylum for her.

Rahaf, who has turned a new leaf in Canada, renounced her last name al-Qunun and posted photos of herself enjoying the pleasures she was deprived of in her homeland. She did a press conference after being informed that she had been granted asylum in the Great White North, telling reporters how "the stress I felt over the last week melted away." She also said she wanted to work towards securing freedom for women across the globe. "Today and for years to come, I will work in support of freedom for women around the world," she said. "The same freedom I experienced on the first day I arrived in Canada."

Rahaf said her first priority was to learn English. She said she wanted to be independent, travel, and make her own decisions about education, forging a career, and who she would marry.

'Rebel: My Escape from Saudi Arabia to Freedom' is scheduled to hit the shelves on Thursday, March 10.