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| Arabia |
| Rania al-Baz Defies Travel Ban |
| 2005-10-05 |
| Paris, 5 Oct. (AKI) - The popular Saudi newsreader and women's rights activist Rania al-Baz has defied a travel ban imposed on her by the Saudi authorities by illegally smuggling herself into France. Al-Baz made headlines around the world last year when she allowed photographs of her bruised and swollen face to be published after her husband almost beat her to death. She was due to promote her new book in Paris and give a lecture on the situation of women in the Gulf. However, London-based Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reports that she has defied the authorities by leaving Saudi Arabia hidden in a goods lorry and travelling to neighbouring Bahrain. She then travelled on to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and from there made her way to France. The editor who has published her new book in France says they now want to clarify her legal position and explained that the presenter had left her children in Saudi Arabia. He said the journalist did not intend to fight her country or Islam, but instead wanted to support women's rights around the world. She had been due to fly to Paris from Jeddah airport on Tuesday, to take part in a seminar called 'Neither Subservient Nor Submissive', organised by the French Women's Organisation at the Autumn University, for whom she is the Middle East spokesperson. However, she was stopped at the airport by the authorities, who said her papers were not in order. She was then told she was banned from leaving the kingdom for an indefinite period. In her book 'The Disfigured', al-Baz talks of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, and how he used to violently beat her, particularly on the face. She also explains the situation for women in Saudi Arabia. Last year her husband left her unconscious at the local hospital with 13 facial fractures after a particularly vicious beating. She had to undergo reconstructive surgery, but agreed to release photographs of her swollen face, thereby highlighting the issue of domestic violence against women, which had long been a taboo subject in the Saudi kingdom. Her husband eventually surrended to the police and was sentenced to six months in prison and 300 lashes after the charge was reduced from attempted murder to severe assault. He was released a little over half way through his sentence at al-Baz's request, in return for her getting full custody of their two children. |
| Posted by:Steve |