Saudi princesses say father holds them hostage for being too outspoken

Saudi Arabia —  Four daughters of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Arabian monarch who is worth an estimated $15 billion, are being held in captivity tortured by their father for being too outspoken.

Sahar (42), Maha (41), Hala (39) and Jawaher (38) Al Saud would lead a luxurious life when they were younger. Each of them desired a "normal" life: to study abroad, travel the world, and eventually marry and have children.

Now, as they and their mother says, they are prisoners. Not only has the 89-year-old king forbidden any man to seek his daughters' hands in marriage, he's confined them, against their will, in separate dark and suffocating quarters at his palace. Power, running water and electricity are shut on and off at random, sometimes days or even weeks at a time. Their rooms are overrun with bugs and rodents.

He drugs their food and water in order to keep them docile, starves them and refuses them the right to see a doctor.

All four women are routinely tortured, sometimes by their own half-brothers.

The king won't let anyone take them in marriage, and he's threatened to kill anyone who would ask.

Too outspoken

The princesses are being held captive because, according to their mother, they are too outspoken and believe women in Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive Islamic nations in the world, should be free. When the sisters openly spoke in opposition to women being illegally detained and placed in mental wards, the king had disowned them.

Women don't have a say in raising their children in Saudi Arabia. They can't go to school, travel, open a bank account, conduct any kind of business or get medical treatment without male permission. In public, everything except the eyes and the hands must be covered, and the slightest infraction can result in a death sentence.

Their mother, Alanoud Al Fayez, long ago fled to London. Her inability to produce a male heir is also part of the reason for the king's hatred for his daughters.

Al Fayez was abused by the king and beaten by his guards on a regular basis. Eventually, with the help of one of Abdullah's security guards, and a women's rights group, Al Fayez fled to London. She says she would have fled with her daughters, but Abdullah had already confiscated the women's passports and separated them from their mother.

Al Fayez says she’s had little help in trying to secure her daughters’ release. She’s hired British and American lawyers, but Abdullah has refused to be questioned.

Abdullah has had 30 wives and fathered more than 40 children. His other daughters from other wives are treated far better. They are allowed to marry, gain education abroad and stay there; also, some of them often speak on behalf of their father.

In a rare interview with journalists, Sahar said that she's constantly threatened by her father and has been told that death is the only way out: "My father said that after his death, our brothers would continue to detain us and abuse us."

Source: Legit.ng