I didn't believe this story.
It took a while for
me to actually believe it,
but it's real.
So officials from
the United Nations have pledged to
make inquiries and
investigate the princess and
the daughter of the ruler of Dubai.
A woman who claims that she's being
held against her will in Dubai and
did get caught trying to escape two
years ago.
The story is insane.
So in 2018,
she decided to make a run for it.
She tried to leave the UAE and
get to India by crossing
the Indian Ocean on a yacht.
But unfortunately she did get
caught and
she was sent back to Dubai,
where we're now learning that she's
been held against her will.
We hadn't heard anything
from her for
two years since she was captured.
And her friends somehow managed to
smuggle a phone to her so
she can film some videos to explain
what she's going through right now.
Her name is Latifa al-Maktoum, and
she hasn't been heard from by
anyone outside of Dubai for months.
And she has reportedly been
confined in a villa by her
family for over two years.
In the videos, which were recorded
over several months on a phone
smuggled to al-Maktoum by her
family, or her friend I should say,
the princess speaks directly to
camera explaining how she was being
held hostage.
Here's a snippet from the video
right now.
>> This video from a bathroom,
because it's the only room
with the door I can lock.
And the door to my room, because
I can't lock the door to my room,
there's no key.
So I'm in a villa.
I'm a hostage and this villa has
been converted into a jail.
All the windows are barred shut.
I can't open any window.
There is five policemen outside.
And two policewomen
inside the house.
And I can't even go
outside to get any fresh air.
I don't know when I'll be released
and what the conditions will be
like when I'm released.
Everyday I am worried about my
safety and my life.
I don't really know if I'm going
to survive this situation.
The police threatened me that I'll
be in prison my whole life and
I'll never see the sun again.
I'm really reaching a point now
where I'm just getting so
tired of everything.
It's like a circus.
[MUSIC]
I don't want to be a hostage in
this jail villa,
I just want to be free.
I don't know what they're planning
to do with me.
I really don't know.
So the situation is getting more
desperate every day.
And I'm just really,
really tired of this now.
>> So two years ago,
when she was captured as she was
trying to escape, there was a lot
of attention to her story.
And at that point,
the United Nations Human
Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson,
decided to travel to the UAE and
check in on Princess Latifa
to make sure that she was okay.
And they put on a show for her,
essentially making it appear as
though everything was fine.
And Mary Robinson said that at
the time it just kind of seemed
like maybe Princess Latifa was just
going through something,
maybe some mental health issues.
And Princess Latifa's stepmother
was there with them as they were
trying to send this message about
how everything is perfectly
fine and everything's okay.
Later, Princess Latifa's stepmother
successfully escaped Dubai.
So obviously the situation there
isn't so great for
the former wives, current wives,
and children of the ruler of Dubai.
And sure, I'll try to pronounce his
name, Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum is his name.
So for anyone who sees all of these
fancy pictures of Dubai and thinks,
yeah, maybe it's a great idea to go
vacation there.
Just understand that the propaganda
they put out there to make it seem
as though everything is hunky dory,
and they're super modernized, and
they believe in liberties and
rights or anything like that.
I really think people
are taking a risk by going there.
>> Yeah, I'll go way further
than that.
So, look, I'm not at all surprised
by this story because I come at it
from a different perspective.
And if you come at it from
an American perspective, it seems
absolutely shocking, right?
But so I'm Muslim.
The overwhelming majority of
Muslims are not fundamentalists.
They're very, very normal people
just like anyone else.
But the fundamentalist strain of
Islam is brutal,
as is the fundamental strain of
almost all the religions.
And the gulf states are led by
dictators.
We should be super clear
about that.
The only reason why we don't frame
it that way, including our media,
is because they're so
called allies of the United States.
So we tolerate their tyranny, and
it is absolute tyranny.
Saudi Arabia does the same exact
thing as ISIS.
They cut off hands and heads.
They capture, they imprison their
political opponents, torture them.
So it's that same
fundamentalist strain.
So kidnapping and holding your own
daughter hostage for PR reasons,
that's like UAE 101, the least
surprising story I've ever heard.
I knew someone that had gone down
to do business, a Turkish guy,
went down to Saudi Arabia.
And the Saudi company that was
connected to the government owed
him money.
So he went down there to collect
and they're like, well,
that was a mistake you idiot.
I don't know if you know this but
we're dictators.
We owe you money, great,
we'll put you in prison and
never pay you.
I don't know if he's
still in prison today.
They're not interested in freedoms,
and any of the things that
we value.
And it's super clear here, I'm not
talking about 1.6 billion Muslims.
I'm talking about the dictator
fundamentalist leaders of the gulf
countries.
I'll go further.
You're nuts to go to
those countries.
I know folks who go there sometimes
who live there.
I think they're nuts.
You see stories all the time.
They kissed in public or
they held hands in public.
They were thrown in prison,
we can't get them out.
Yeah, they're a fundamentalist
country run by nut jobs.
You're taking your life
into your hands.
They have a shiny building because
they happen to have oil or
gas underneath their desert.
Who cares?
They're not at all modern.
And they're not any allies of ours.
But look, I'll say one last thing.
So that's criticizing the gulf
states, but let's look inside
our own house too.
So she's a princess locked away in
a tower.
What are the fables and
the mythology that we tell our kids
about princesses
locked up in towers?
Rapunzel, by the way, princesses
who are sleeping beauties who
are comatose, and then they wait
for the great prince to rescue them
by kissing them without consent.
So these are our stories,
let's be real.
I write about that in my book that
will hopefully one day come out.
If you want to pre-order it's
justiceiscomingbook.com.
But back to this,
it's not an ancient fable.
It's happening right now.
She's held hostage today.
Don't be deceived by the fact that,
it's family members or
they have a different culture.
No, she's a hostage, period.