‘If my father caught me he would kill me’. Our @Channel4News report on the Saudi sisters fleeing abuse and the guardianship laws that deny women rights and safety.
Lindsey Hilsum is Channel 4 News’ International Editor
Two sisters, who say they suffered years of abuse at the hands of their own father, have become the latest Saudi women to flee the Kingdom.
Draconian guardianship laws mean every Saudi woman is assigned a male guardian, usually a father or husband, whose permission is needed to marry, travel and even play sports.
Women, throughout their lives, are always treated as minors.
Dua and Dalal say they fear being “disappeared” if their father tracks them down.
Lindsey Hilsum went to Istanbul to speak to the sisters for this exclusive report.
“Every modern U.S. President tries to influence the world,” former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wrote in Time. “President Donald Trump has done this …”
However, Trump sits next to some of his vocal critics on the list of “100 most influential people” – AIWA! NO!
In his third year as the United States president, President Donald Trump finds himself placed on the Time’s “100 most influential people” list.
“Every modern U.S. President tries to influence the world,” former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wrote in Time. “President Donald Trump has done this …”
Christie went on to acknowledge some of the president’s accomplishments: tough stance on NATO countries, China and North American trade agreements, and Iran nuclear agreement withdrawal.
He labelled Trump’s “boldest move” as his efforts with North Korea and for placing “his imprint on a problem spanning more than six decades.”
Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
“[…] President Trump decided to ramp up sanctions early in his tenure (which other Presidents have done) but decided to take a very different tack thereafter.
In June 2018 President Trump broke with decades of U.S. policy and held a summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un in Singapore. The President believes that only personal diplomacy can solve this crisis. […]”
“President Trump deserves great credit for daring to try to personally persuade Chairman Kim to join the family of nations,” Christie wrote. “This approach holds the possibility for history–making changes on the Korean Peninsula to make us all safer.”
However, Trump sits next to some of his vocal critics on the list of “100 most influential people”:
In her first year in Congress, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is listed as one of the most influential “leaders” — even though a recent poll found only 23 percent of those polled were in favor of her.
The rising Democratic socialist star was touted by 2020 Democratic contender Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for her “commitment to putting power in the hands of the people is forged in fire.”
“A year ago, she was taking orders across a bar,” Warren wrote. “Today, millions are taking cues from her.”
Listed first on the list of “leaders,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was praised as a “driving force” by 2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“She delivered. […] Nancy is leading the charge,” Clinton wrote. ” […] Speaker Nancy Pelosi is living proof that when it comes to getting the job done, more often than not, it takes a woman.”
Former first lady Michelle Obama, listed as an “icon” by Time, was admired as not “much of a choice” but “something that came naturally,” singer-songwriter Beyoncé Knowles-Carter wrote.
“She would’ve been impactful simply by being in the White House, the first African-American First Lady,” Beyoncé wrote. “But she also used her position of power to improve the world around her.”
While the former first lady made the Time’s “100 most influential people” list, U.S. first lady Melania Trump did not.
In this March 25, 2019 photo, Elliot Dougherty, left, and his husband Matthew Eledge, second left, react during the delivery of their daughter at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. Matthew Eledge’s mother, Cecile Eledge, volunteered to be the surrogate mother to her grandchild, conceived with sperm from Matthew Eledge and an egg from Dougherty’s sister. (Ariel Panowicz via AP)
It’s a girl! A 61-year-old Nebraska woman who served as a surrogate mother for her son and his husband has given birth – AIWA! NO!
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 61-year-old Nebraska woman who served as a surrogate mother for her son and his husband has given birth to a baby girl.
Matthew Eledge and Elliot Dougherty were talking about becoming parents when Eledge’s mother and Dougherty’s sister offered to help.
Cecile Eledge was 60 at the time and had gone through menopause, but she was approved as a surrogate after extensive screening. Dougherty’s sister was the egg donor, and after doctors used Eledge’s sperm to fertilize the egg, the embryo was implanted.
In this March 25, 2019 photo, Matthew Eledge, right, and his husband Elliot Dougherty, center, react to the birth of their daughter Uma, with Eledge’s mother, Cecile Eledge, delivering the baby at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. Cecile Eledge volunteered to be the surrogate mother to her grandchild, conceived with sperm from Matthew Eledge and an egg from Dougherty sister. (Ariel Panowicz via AP)
Cecile Eledge gave birth last week at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The family says they’ve received nothing but support. r Ramzy Nakad is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who worked with the family. tells the Omaha World-Herald that doctors keep older expectant mothers under heightened surveillance, and in this case, “everything was aligned for a good outcome.”
In this March 25, 2019 photo, Cecile Eledge smiles after delivering her grandchild at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. Eledge volunteered to be the surrogate mother to her grandchild, conceived with sperm from her son Matthew Eledge and an egg from Lea Yribe, the sister of Matthew Eledge’s husband, Elliot Dougherty. (Ariel Panowicz via AP) In this March 25, 2019 photo, Elliot Dougherty holds his daughter Uma after her delivery at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. Cecile Eledge, mother of Dougherty’s husband Matthew Eledge, volunteered to be the surrogate mother to her grandchild, which was conceived with sperm from Matthew Eledge and an egg from Elliot Dougherty’s sister Lea Yribe. (Ariel Panowicz via AP) In this March 25, 2019 photo, Elliot Dougherty, right, holds his daughter Uma after her delivery at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., with husband Matthew Eledge. Cecile Eledge, mother of Matthew Eledge, volunteered to be the surrogate mother to her grandchild, which was conceived with sperm from Matthew Eledge and an egg from Dougherty’s sister Lea Yribe. (Ariel Panowicz via AP) In this March 25, 2019 photo, Matthew Eledge, left, his mother Cecile Eledge, center, and Matthew’s husband Elliot Dougherty, right, greet baby Uma after her delivery at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. Cecile Eledge volunteered to be the surrogate mother to her grandchild, conceived with sperm from Matthew Eledge and an egg from Dougherty’s sister, Lea Yribe. (Ariel Panowicz via AP)
Elton John says he won’t stay at hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei.
Elton John joins call for boycott of Brunei-owned hotels
AIWA! NO!|| British pop legend Elton John has joined “friend” George Clooney in calling for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate’s new death-penalty laws for gay sex and adultery.
“I commend my friend, #GeorgeClooney, for taking a stand against the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry taking place in the nation of #Brunei – a place where gay people are brutalized, or worse – by boycotting the Sultan’s hotels,” the Rocket Man singer wrote on his Twitter page late Saturday.
The 72-year-old, a veteran gay rights campaigner, said his “heart went out” to staff at the hotels, but that “we must send a message, however we can, that such treatment is unacceptable.”
The nine hotels mentioned by Clooney are located in the US, Britain, France and Italy.
The Dorchester was not available for immediate comment on the boycott.
They include London’s exclusive Dorchester and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
Clooney called for the boycott earlier this week, saying “every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery.”
