Sawt Falasteen - Saudi woman may have been abducted from Australia: lawyer

Lolita Safeeraldeen arrived in Australia in 2022 and stopped responding to messages in May 2023 while in Melbourne, said her human rights lawyer, Alison Battisson.

Battisson said she initially hoped her client was hiding elsewhere in Australia.

But a year later, she has been told Safeeraldeen is back in Saudi Arabia, raising concern that her client was removed from Australia against her will.

"I'm absolutely certain that Lolita would never go back to Saudi Arabia voluntarily," Battisson told AFP in Sydney.

"I'm just happy that it looks like she's alive and for a long time I thought she might be dead."

Battisson said a family member had confirmed that Safeeraldeen was alive in Saudi Arabia, most likely in a detention centre.

Saudi Arabia's embassy has been asked to comment on the allegations.

Safeeraldeen -- who was married at the age of 11, and gave birth to her first child at 13 -- fled sexual and physical abuse in her home country and was seeking asylum in Australia, according to The Australian newspaper.

On the night Safeeraldeen disappeared, a friend of hers who wishes to remain anonymous for safety reasons, received an "absolutely petrifying" call begging for help as men forced her to leave, Battisson said.

- 'Extremely concerned' -

The friend rushed to her home but was blocked from seeing the woman by several men, who were outside with a black Mercedes van, the lawyer said.

Neither the friend nor Battisson heard from Safeeraldeen again.

From a young age, Safeeraldeen had allegedly been forced to assume the identity of her dead half-sister Hanan, who is reportedly nine years older.

Flight records show that a woman named Hanan Safeeraldeen bordered a flight out of Melbourne a few days after the incident at her home, Battisson said.

But the airport CCTV is no longer available, and she does not know who else was on the flight.

"I'm extremely concerned for Lolita's safety," Battisson said.

So far, the Australian government has not publicly confirmed any details of the incident or the woman's identity.

Australia's federal police said they were aware of the allegations and began inquiries in Australia and offshore in June 2024. They declined further comment.

The Home Affairs Department said it would not comment on a specific case but it was "actively investigating a range of foreign interference cases".

Saudi Arabia has long been associated with the repression of women over its former rules such as a ban on driving and a requirement to wear abaya robes.

While some restrictions have been lifted, human rights activists say a personal status law that took effect in 2022 still discriminates against women concerning marriage, divorce and child-rearing.

- 'Forgotten and abandoned' -

"We have seen cases where women are forcibly deported, and family members or people associated with those family members have forced them to go back to Saudi Arabia," Human Rights Watch Australia Director Daniela Gavshon told AFP.

Gavshon pointed to two cases in 2017 and 2019 of women being intercepted on their way to Australia while fleeing Saudi Arabia.

But no abduction has been confirmed inside Australia's borders, she said.

Battisson said she feared similar cases of abduction had gone unreported in the past.

"Every minute that their names aren't on an airport watch list, or they're somehow not warned that this happens, is a danger," she said.

"This was foreseeable and therefore preventable."

Since reporting the alleged abduction, Battisson has spoken to media in the hope that Safeeraldeen's still-pending visa application will be approved, opening a potential pathway for consular assistance and even a return to Australia.

"She might actually get contact with her lawyer and know that she's not forgotten and abandoned in a system that promotes gender apartheid."

Q.Najjar--SF-PST