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Topics: World News, Crime
Britt Jones
Dubai princesses are escaping, and the reason is shocking.
While being a princess is something many of us have dreamed of since childhood, the reality can be very different to the balls, dresses and luxury we imagined.
Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the leader of Dubai, has been known for his progressive nature.
He was allegedly a friend of the late Queen, frequented racehorse events and writes poetry.
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However, during one of the biggest racing events - the Royal Ascot - his 'public wife' was notably absent in 2020.
Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, was the first Arab woman equestrian to compete in the Olympics, as she represented Jordan in show jumping in 2000.
She had been educated at the University of Oxford and is the first woman in Jordan to hold a driver’s license for heavy machinery so that she could take her horses to shows without having to hire someone.
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Her father, King Hussein, was a progressive leader of Jordan for years.
But Haya, escaped a life that many would have considered perfect.
Haya had fled to London, which led to the ruler suing her for the return of their children, who were 8 and 12 at the time.
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Of course, much interest came about during this high-profile divorce, and while nobody knew the true reason, the sheik allegedly wrote in a poem, according to Vanity Fair: “O you who betrayed the most precious of trust / My sorrow revealed your game.
“You loosened the reins of your horse.”
Haya, was granted diplomatic immunity by Jordan, and is still residing in London.
But she was not the first to have tried to escape.
In 2001, Sheik Mohammed’s elder daughter Sheikha Shamsa bint Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, abandoned her car at the stables at the al-Maktoum Surrey estate, and she fled to Cambridge for a short time before being kidnapped and taken home.
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Afterwards, a Surrey woman claimed she found a voice message on her answering machine from someone with a name that sounded like Shamsa, which claimed she had been ‘returned to Dubai against her will’, and asked that her attorney, Paul Simon, be notified.
After hearing this she called the police, who referred it to the appropriate service, but did not deliver any results as to what actually happened to Shamsa that night.
Later, Shamsa was able to contact her lawyer and said to him: “I’m being watched all the time so I’ll get straight to the point. I was caught.
“Paul, I know these people, they have all the money, they have all the power, they think they can do anything.”
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She claimed her father’s guards were ‘trying to terrorise me and break me’ and asked for the British authorities to get involved ‘immediately’.
Sadly, she was allegedly imprisoned for years following her attempt to escape.
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, Mohammed's younger daughter, had tried to flee Dubai in 2018 on a boat.
As for why, she explained that she treated like a doll, had little freedom and wanted a life beyond her captivity in the palace.
“I remember as a kid always being at the window watching people outside,” Latifa told The New Yorker.
She said photographers would treater her ‘like a doll, in jewels, dresses and makeup’ as a child.
But when they left, she was sent back to her room.
Growing up, she said abuse was normal, and she saw her father punch her sister in the head for interrupting him (Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum's lawyers deny this happened).
In 2018, Latifa attempted to flee the country on a yacht, but she was captured and imprisoned for three years.
Now, Latifa is 'free', having posted to an Instagram account that she is living her life as she wants after a major scandal broke in 2021.
Footage leaked in which Latifa described herself as a 'hostage', saying: "I’m not free. I am imprisoned in this jail."
Since then, an Instagram account under the name of Latifa Al Maktoum wrote: “I was recently made aware of media inquiries for a piece which casts doubt on my freedom.
“I can understand it from the outside perspective of seeing someone so outspoken fall off the grid and have others speak on her behalf, especially after everything that has happened which appears to make me look like I’m being controlled. I am totally free and living an independent life.”
The statement was posted alongside a picture of Latifa outside the Swarovski Crystal Worlds park in Austria.
As for Shamsa, she has not been seen in public since, and Latifa has been campaigning for officials to reopen her case after a judge legally found them both to have been kidnapped by their father, as per the BBC.
Tyla has reached out to the Dubai Embassy for comment.