Will Joe Biden Come To The Rescue Of Dubai Princess Latifa Al Maktoum?

Supporters and well-wishers of missing Dubai Princess Latifa Al Maktoum called upon United States president Joe Biden recently. They urged the US president to pressure United Arab Emirates (UAE) for her release. This comes after a series of videos featuring the missing princess were released by a news channel yesterday.

According to a report by DW, Human rights campaigner and the princess' ally David Haigh said that Biden is one of the few figures who wields enough influence to secure her release. Women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul's release in Saudi Arabia, after the Biden administration froze the sales of arms to that Gulf country was what encouraged Latifa's supporters, he added.

"The only level of people that are going to have enough influence to effectively force Latifa's father to open her jail are people like Joe Biden, and there's very few of them," Haigh told AP, also adding, "And he's shown that he can do it with Saudi."

Who is Dubai Princess Latifa Al Maktoum?

Maktoum is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, and Houria Ahmed Lamara, one of Sheikh’s six wives. In 2018, Latifa Al Maktoum made an attempt to escape from Dubai but was caught off the coast of Goa. Releasing a video through her lawyer, she claimed that she was assaulted, brutally beaten and tortured for days.

In a series of new videos released by the BBC recently Maktoum claimed that she was being held hostage in a barricaded villa. "I’m a hostage,” 35-year-old Latifa said in one of the new videos. “This villa has been converted into jail. I can’t even go outside to get any fresh air,” she further added.

Reports suggest that the Dubai Princess made the videos in a bathroom on a phone she secretly received about a year after her capture. “I don’t know when I’ll be released and what the conditions will be like when I’m released,” she said, adding, “Every day I am worried about my safety and my life.” Read more about it here.