Over the weekend 52 thousand people tensely watched an 18 year old woman's twitter account. For once, it wasn't because they were awaiting news of a fashion collaboration or beauty line reveal. Rahaf Al-Qunqun is the student who is in Thailand after being stopped by airport security officials on her way to Australia, where she was planning to seek asylum. She has since sent out tweets pleading for help from the Australian, Canadian, US and UK authorities.
After she was detained in Bangkok, Ms Al-Qunun barricaded herself in her room to prevent being forced to board a flight that was due to deport her back to Kuwait this morning. She asked on Twitter that those in Bangkok protested against her deportation writing 'I am shouting out for help of humanity'.
Rahaf's claims to have been subjected to profound psychological and physical abuse at the hands of her family including beating, death threats, and being locked in her room for sixth months for cutting her hair. In a video she voiced fears that a deportation would be tantamount to her own death sentence 'my family threatens to kill me for the most trivial of things' .
Speaking the The Guardian, a friend of Rahaf's said, 'She’s ex-Muslim and has a very strict family, they’re using violence with her and she faced sexual harassment,' the unnamed source said. 'She received a threat from her cousin – he said he wants to see her blood, he wants to kill her.' Rahaf has also renounced Islam, which means that on return to Saudi Arabia she could face imprisonment 'I’m sure, 100%, they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail,' she has said.
Phil Robertson of the Human Rights Watch confirmed that this represents a significant threat to Rahaf's safety "Given Saudi Arabia's long track record of looking the other way in so-called honor violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if returned cannot be ignored'.
The Thai authorities have confirmed this morning that they will not attempt to deport Rahaf, with the Thai immigation officer Surachate Hakparn stating that Rahaf is now under the sovereignity of Thailand and that 'since she escaped trouble to seek our help... we will not send anyone to their death.'
Rahaf has confirmed that she has given a friend access to her Twitter account in the event that something should happen to her 'I shared my story and my pictures on social media and my father is so angry because I did this... I can't study and work in my country, so I want to be free and study and work as I want'.