HOME

ABOUT

CONTACT

Quarter 4  December 15th. 2020 - April 15th.
Feminicides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Mothers for peace, Afghanistan
Shamsia Hassani, Afghanistan
Malala Yousafhai, Pakistan
Brazilian indigenous seeks EU support
IS and the attempted genocide of the Yazidis

SPECIAL

September 19th.-27th.
GLOBAL CLIMATE DEMONSTRATIONS REVOLT view a depiction of the global demonstrations (approx. 40 pics.) 
SPECIAL: UN CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT NYC 20-23 september part 1
SPECIAL: UN CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT NYC 20-23 september part 2

Quarter 3 September 15th. 2019 - December 15th. 2019
She's back: amazon viking and climate warrior Greta Thunberg (16)
Amazonas burning!
IRAN SPECIAL: Forough Farrokhzad feminist poetress
Forough Farrokhzad timeline
Iranian female amazon photographers
USA: The squad

Quarter 2 May 31th. - September 1t5h.
Urgent rescue call for  Latifa Al Maktoum aka princess/sheikha of Dubai
Urgent call for Nasrin Sotoudeh (Iran)
' Lipstick and Gas Masks ': Women in times of resistance Mashid Mohadjerin

London Climate Rebelion 1
London Climate Rebelion 2
Greta Thunberg, Sweden, climate rebel, activist and amazon warrior says: "I'll be back!"

Special Climate Alert:
Greta Thunberg, Sweden, climate rebel, activist and amazon warrior
Alexandria Villaseñor, NYC, climate rebel, activist and amazon warrior
Global march 2019

Quarter 1 FEB- 31 MAY 2019 : Malala Yousafhai Pakistan - Nigerian schoolgirls - Peshmerga female combatants Koerdistan -
Greta Thunberg, Sweden, climate rebel/activist.

Urgent rescue call for  Latifa Al Maktoum aka princess/sheikha of Dubai
We all know this promo image of Dubai which is part of the UAE:

 

which is, among other images, part of to draw interest of investors and tourists.
But like any image it has a dark side and this is the dreadfull story of Latifa Al Maktoum aka princess/sheikha of Dubai

 

who has tried with the help of friends to escape from the oppressing terror, remember that women don't have rights whatsover in the UAE, and almost succeeded but in the end was captured by the secret service and brought back to Dubai.

wath her story on video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN7OEFyNUkQ

Read the article as was published by the News Irisch News on Thursday 7 March 2019:

"It is hard not to be moved by a video recorded early last year by Princess Latifa, daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the fabulously wealthy ruler of Dubai.
The sad-eyed, articulate 32-year-old woman with gleaming white teeth gazes dolefully at the camera and says: "If you are watching this video, it is not such a good thing.

"Either I'm dead or I'm in a very, very, very bad situation."

According to those who are campaigning on her behalf, Princess Latifa recorded the haunting video in preparation for her attempted escape from Dubai in March of last year.

Concern: Princess Latifa looks on during her recent lunch with Mary Robinson
The video, sent by Latifa to an American lawyer, was to be released to the world in the event that she was recaptured, as she tried to get away from the emirate.

That is how events played out. Latifa's bid to get away was reportedly foiled close to the coast of India, and the video was publicly released.

The story of what happened to Latifa has alarmed human rights campaigners, and has embroiled the former President Mary Robinson, now in controversy.

Princess Latifa vanished in mysterious circumstances in March 2018 amid reports that she was seized by commandos as she crossed the Indian Ocean on a yacht, having fled the emirate on a boat skippered by a former French intelligence officer Hervé Jaubert.

She was accompanied during the escape by her close friend, a Finnish martial arts instructor, Tiina Jauhiainen.

Nothing was heard from Latifa since her reported capture on board the boat - until Mary Robinson visited Dubai in December, at the invitation of Princess Haya, a wife of Sheikh Mohammed and Latifa's stepmother.

Apparently contradicting claims by advocacy groups that the princess was possibly being detained against her will, the former president said the princess is "in the loving care of her family".

Robinson insisted in recent days that she travelled to Dubai to meet Latifa "in good faith", but the nature of the visit, apparently paid for by the Dubai royal family, has been criticised by the campaign groups Human Rights Watch and Detained in Dubai

Latifa's close friend Tiina Jauhiainen told of her mixed emotions as she finally heard news of the princess's whereabouts after a long period of silence.

The pair have not seen each other since they reportedly fled Dubai last March on the yacht Nostromo, and were captured by Indian and Emirati commandos who boarded the boat.

Jauhiainen, who first met the princess in 2010, told Review: "Seeing the photos gave me a sense of relief because it validated the past and showed that she was still alive.

"However, it left me with an overwhelming feeling of confusion as to what it means for the future."

Jauhiainen, who was hired as Princess Latifa's instructor in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, added: "I still don't know if she's safe - or whether she is being detained against her will. That uncertainty makes me feel incredibly sad."

Disturbing allegations

The mysterious story of Princess Latifa and her reported escape from Dubai were highlighted by a documentary shown by the BBC in early December, just days before Robinson's visit to Dubai.

The programm carries extensive interviews with witnesses to the escape and capture of the princess, including Tiina, the skipper of the boat Hervé Jaubert and crew members.

In the video recorded before she left Dubai, Latifa makes disturbing allegations about how she was treated in the emirate.

As the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed is one of the richest men in the world with a fortune estimated at €18bn.

But the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is part, has been heavily criticised by campaigners because of the authoritarian nature of the regime and its poor human rights record.

The campaign group Human Rights Watch, which has taken up Latifa's case, highlights the arbitrary detention of critics of the regime, the use of torture, the treatment of migrant workers and discrimination against women.

Princess Latifa presents a disturbing picture of the regime in the video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN7OEFyNUkQ ), which was released by campaigners after her reported escape bid failed.

She alleges she had previously tried to escape from Dubai in 2002, but her attempt to get away was foiled when she was stopped at the border.

Latifa alleged that she was then imprisoned for three years and four months. She claimed that during that time she was tortured, beaten and kept in solitary confinement.

Princess Latifa tells in the video how her movements were still heavily restricted after she was released from prison following the first escape.

She says she was not allowed to drive or leave the country, and her driver had to know where she was at all times.

The BBC documentary tells how in the face of these restrictions, she made another more elaborate plan for an escape from Dubai. She was reportedly planning this getaway for up to seven years.

Sending messages from an internet café, she got in touch with Hervé Jaubert, the former French intelligence officer.

He himself had escaped from the United Arab Emirates, after falling foul of the authorities, crossing the Indian Ocean in a boat.

With Tiina Jauhiainen in on the act, the Princess and her French accomplice plotted Latifa's getaway.

The plan was for Latifa and Tiina to drive to the neighbouring state of Oman, meet Jaubert's yacht out at sea, cross the ocean to India and then fly to the United States.

On February 24 last year, Princess Latifa and Tiina met in a café, following a normal routine to deflect attention, and then after Latifa had changed her clothes they drove across the border into Oman.

After a difficult trip by jet ski and dinghy, they succeeded in reaching the French skipper on the Nostromo, and they set off on the long journey across the ocean.

As well as Latifa, Tiina and Jaubert, there were also Filipino crew members on board, who witnessed what later transpired.

Soon after Latifa and Tiina went on board, the princess and Hervé Jaubert were keen to get in touch with campaigners helping those imprisoned in Dubai so that they knew what had happened to Latifa.

Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained in Dubai, told Review: "Latifa telephoned me and WhatsApped me from the boat in the days before she was apprehended."

In an introductory message, Latifa says: "I got your contact from a friend. My name is Latifa Al Maktoum. The time is ticking and they have a target on my head - this is a very urgent message."

It took some time for Stirling to confirm that these messages, purporting to be from an escaped princess, were genuine. But she was eventually satisfied that they were authentic and that this was a cry for help.

In his account of the journey in the BBC documentary, Jaubert told how he began to notice that the boat was being followed as it crossed the ocean.

He also spotted a surveillance plane circling overhead, and alerted Latifa.

According to Tiina, the princess became more nervous as they approached Indian waters, and this apprehension proved to be well justified.

On March 4, soon after 10pm, Tiina and the princess were in the cabin when they heard what they thought were gunshots.

They locked themselves in the bathroom and Stirling says she then talked to Latifa over the phone and could hear the noises.

Stirling told Review what Latifa said at that point: "There are men outside. I don't know what's going on - I can hear gunshots. Please help me."

Commandos had boarded the boat and Hervé Jaubert said they put a gun to his head and then beat him up. Initially those who boarded were Indian, but according to Jaubert, they were then joined by Emiratis.

Tiina, Jaubert and the crew of the boat were then taken to the United Arab Emirates for a time before being released, but nothing was heard from Latifa until Mary Robinson's visit.

According to Tiina, the last she saw of the princess, she was being dragged away kicking and screaming.

In the wake of the Robinson visit this week, Tiina Jauhiainen told Review: "As Latifa was able to predict, they would try discredit her by calling into question her mental stability. That is deplorable."

Tiina was struck by the appearance of her friend in the pictures publicised on the news wires.

"The photos left me more concerned than relieved, as Latifa clearly looks unhappy and shaken," she says.

Contacted by Review, Mary Robinson's spokesperson Bride Rosney said the former president "is declining to make any further comment on this issue at this time".

Robinson explained in a BBC interview why she had flown to meet the princess. She said she had been asked by Princess Haya, one of Sheikh Mohammed's wives and someone she had known for a long time, to come to Dubai to help with a "family dilemma".

Robinson has said she has known and worked with Princess Haya for many years in her capacity as a member of the UN Global Humanitarian Forum and as a UN Messenger of Peace.

Princess Haya, who is the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, is a well-known figure in equestrian circles as a former showjumper. She lived in Ireland for a time in the 1990s and competed in the RDS horse show.

'She's troubled'

Robinson said of the meeting with Latifa: "The dilemma was that Latifa is vulnerable. She's troubled. She made a video that she now regrets and she planned an escape, or was part of a plan of escape..."

Robinson told in the BBC interview how she had lunch with Latifa, Haya and others, and was able to "assess the situation".

After the meeting involving Robinson, the United Arab Emirates government issued a statement saying it had delivered a communiqué regarding Princess Latifa to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' Office of Special Procedures.

"The communiqué responds to and rebuts false allegations and provided evidence that Her Highness Sheikha Latifa was at home and living with her family in Dubai."

The statement said: "During her visit to Dubai, Mary Robinson was reassured that HH Sheikha Latifa is receiving the necessary care and support she requires."

But the visit was criticised by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Ken Roth, executive director of the group, said on Twitter: "A brief interview in the presence of the family that allegedly kidnapped her, after who knows what treatment she endured in the past nine months of incommunicado detention, is no way to determine the current mental health or desires of Dubai Princess Latifa."

Robinson will be back in Dubai in March to promote her book Climate Justice at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

But the reported plight of Princess Latifa and the disregard for human rights and the rights of women in the gulf state will prompt questions whether her involvement in the case at the invitation of Dubai royal family was at best ill-judged.

Former President Mary Robinson said in a statement on the case on December 28:

“I undertook the visit and made an assessment, not a judgment, based on personal witness, in good faith and to the best of my ability.”

She added: “At the request of Princess Haya bint Hussein, one of the wives of the UAE prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, I visited Dubai on December 15 to meet with Her Highness Sheikha Latifa.

“I have known and worked with Princess Haya for many years in her capacity as a member of the UN Global Humanitarian Forum and as a UN Messenger of Peace.

“I was aware of the international concern over Sheikha Latifa and that she had not been seen for many months so when Princess Haya asked me to go to Dubai to meet with both of them I agreed, without hesitation.

“On my arrival in Dubai, I received extensive briefings and it was clear to me that Princess Haya had particular concern for the welfare of Sheikha Latifa whom she described as troubled and quite vulnerable.

“During my time with her, Sheikha Latifa presented as a very likeable young woman with a wide range of interests but her vulnerability was apparent.”

March 7th. 2019. Look again at Latifa's video from 2018 and I'm sure nothing has changed since she was re-captured by the Dubai secret service. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN7OEFyNUkQ

I want to ask the readers to please contact the embassy of Dubai and demand the release of Sheika Latifa!!!

Gino d'Artali
chief editor