Escape to Dubai (repeat)

[StarbucksSmarterSister]

Being repeated now due to yesterday's court ruling.

I missed it last time but knew the story, although I had no idea about her sister's disappearance several years previously.
It really is appalling.

Oh good - it's on again is it. I watched it the first time round - yes I was appalled OP.

So glad this has now gone to court and got the exposure.

Shouldn’t that be Escape FROM Dubai, OP? Yes, Shamsa’s running away in the UK is chilling. Though a former CP said in the Guardian that even though the investigation into her disappearance has been reopened, Sheikh Mohammed’s status may give him immunity, and in any case the burden of proof in a criminal cases is far higher than in the family court... Also, there has never been any political will to do anything to endanger the UK’s relationship with the UAE.

Fuschia yes it should!

Oh nothing will be done, of course It's awful. He has numerous other daughters (including two others called Latifah, bizarrely) so does that mean the others all "behave" ? I

It’s hard to know, OP. I used to live in Dubai, and it was intermittently rife with rumours about feuds, disinheriting, punishments, and ‘house arrests’ in the royal family. It’s fairly well-evidenced that Rashid, Sheikh Mohammed’s son by Sheikha Hind, who was stripped of his status as heir apparent to Dubai in 2008 and died unexpectedly in his early 30s in 2015, was a drug addict. A diplomatic cable leaked via Wikileaks said he’d killed a palace aide. Another from the CIA talked about the existence of a Saudi party scene composed largely of ME male royals, at which sex and drugs were rife.

Certainly there’s a marked double standard in the treatment of the male and female younger generation. The boys move out of their mothers’ palaces into their own houses and marry later, the girls live either at Zabeel or at their mothers’ until marriage, and lots of them have married into the royal families of other emirates, or Bahrain.

Though when I lived there a house thought to have been Rashid’s had been demolished, the garden bulldozed, the pool filled in — rumour was that it was as a visible ‘example’.

But also lots of completely unsubstantiated rumours. Which might nonetheless have some truth. With a heavily censored press, you never know. No word about Princess Haya’s court case, or about Shamsa and Latifa, has appeared in any UAE media outlet.

There was a rumour when we lived there that one of Sheikh Mohammed’s sons — might have been Rashid, I can’t remember if he was identified by name in the rumour! — had shot his father, and Sh Mo had been surreptitiously flown out of the country for medical treatment. After which said son was not seen in public again.

Also, look at the Abu Dhabi royals. Sheikh Issa acquitted by a UAE court of rape and torture, despite being on video actually doing it, and encouraging the filming. He didn’t have a political role, but didn’t appear in public again after the trial, as far as I’m aware. These things are settled ‘in family’.

I do remember the demolished palace and the rumours surrounding it, too. Normally, you’d ignore them, but there’s no factual media reporting on such things inside the UAE. And it’s a far more surveillance-heavy culture than when I lived there.

I was fascinated by the fact that there is no image whatsoever of Sh. Mo’s senior wife, Sheikha Hind publicly available.

The whole thing upsets me. I have never been Dubai despite several opportunities. It has always knocked me sick even before the stories about the royal family emerged. Why would anyone support a venture that basically enslaved worker for years.
I had an abusive father, the only thing that got me through was knowing that one day I would march with my feet. He had a massive stroke at 93. I attended the hospital even though there had been no contact for over forty years with either him or the brothers. I looked round us all and could see no one cared. My sister said he looked terrified at the suggestion that family could care for him. I laughed at the wake when it emerged that not a single wish he requested for his funeral was granted. I warmed my hands and face on the bonfire that was made of his belongings. If I had the choice of ten years of solitary confinement or ten seconds in the company of my father, I would take the ten years.