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Rahaf al-Qunun flying to Canada in asylum bid | Rahaf al-Qunun flying to Canada in asylum bid |
(35 minutes later) | |
A Saudi woman who fled her family and became stranded at Bangkok's main airport is now flying to Canada to seek asylum, Thai officials say. | |
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, had been trying to reach Australia via Bangkok, but was initially told to return to Kuwait, where her family were waiting. | |
She refused to fly back and barricaded herself into her airport hotel room, attracting international attention. | |
She said she had renounced Islam, which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. | She said she had renounced Islam, which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. |
The UN's refugee agency has said it considers her to be a legitimate refugee. | The UN's refugee agency has said it considers her to be a legitimate refugee. |
Refugee status is normally granted by governments, but the UNHCR can grant it where states are "unable or unwilling to do so", according to its website. | |
Thai immigration officials told Reuters that Canada had "granted her asylum", however Canadian officials told the BBC they currently have "nothing to confirm" on the issue. | |
What happened to Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun? | |
She was on a trip to Kuwait with her family, when she fled on a flight to Bangkok. | |
She said she intended to take a connecting flight to Australia - and had an Australian visa - but that her passport was seized by a Saudi diplomat when he met her coming off the flight at Suvarnabhumi airport, leaving her stranded. | |
A Saudi envoy in Bangkok denied any official Saudi involvement in Ms Mohammed al-Qunun's detention. | |
Thai officials initially described her case as a "family problem" and said she would be repatriated back to Kuwait the next day. | |
However, Ms Mohammed al-Qunun sent a series of tweets pleading for help from her airport hotel room, and her case was picked up by Human Rights Watch and journalists. | |
On Wednesday, the UN refugee agency said it considered her a legitimate refugee. Australia was among the countries considering her case. | |
Why did she flee? | |
Renunciation of Islam is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. | |
Under Saudi Arabia's "male guardianship system", a Saudi woman is required to obtain a male relative's approval to apply for a passport, travel outside the country, study abroad on a government scholarship, get married, leave prison, or even exit a shelter for abuse victims. | |
Ms Mohammed al-Qunun told the BBC: "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." | |
She also said she was afraid her family would kill her. | |
Separately, she told AFP she had suffered physical and psychological abuse from her family, including being locked in her room for six months for cutting her hair. | |
A spokesperson for her family told the BBC that they did not wish to comment and all they cared about was the young woman's safety. |