09/13/2023
Proud to work on my first assignment for The Guardian:
Bethany AlHaidari fled Saudi Arabia in 2019 with her daughter, Zaina, after what she described as an abusive relationship that lead to complicated divorce proceedings, the loss of her legal residency rights in that country, and a bitter custody battle with her ex-husband. For now, she is safe in Washington state where she has her daughter, pending a custody appeal before a local superior court October 24th in Wenatchee.
“I’m quite stressed and nervous, I would say. The odds are not really in our favor. The reality of what losing this case would mean for myself and my community and my daughter, is quite frightening,” she says. “Getting out of Saudi Arabia was a hellish experience, and to be faced with the possibility of having to go back, to being forced to go back, is overwhelming.”
Bethany graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 2022, and now works as a consultant for the Human Rights Foundation. She also serves as the executive director of Sage Advocacy Center, helping victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
“Zaina is about to be nine years old and her friends talk and she doesn’t want to leave. She’s cried. She’s had issues at school. So yeah. I think it would be incredibly detrimental to her to be forced to go back. And it’s unique in this case, because of the work that I’ve done, I’m unable to go back to Saudi Arabia. If she’s returned to Saudi Arabia by the courts, I wouldn’t be able to see her again. There’s no guarantee. Human Rights Watch, in an amicus brief, analyzed that if I was to return to Saudi Arabia, I would face imprisonment or even the death penalty.”
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Photographed Sept. 2, 2023 at Green Lake Park in Seattle. Assisting by .