A Private Family Matter

By Herve Jaubert

Captain Herve Jaubert breaks his silence in his explosive true story with Princess Latifa and stunning revelations. Princess Latifa had planned to escape from the Maktoums’ stranglehold for her whole life. She knew the risk of running for freedom. She would have died trying rather than live in submission. When she escaped from Dubai on February 24, 2018, with the help of former French spy Herve Jaubert, Sheikh Mohammed launched a military attack against a US private yacht never seen in maritime history. Latifa is no ordinary princess; she is a tigress; she fought to scream, bite, and kick the Indian commandos who stormed the American yacht where she had taken refuge. They kidnapped her with everyone onboard and took her back to the clenches of her father, the Emir of Dubai. She suffered torture and humiliation because of her determination. Princess Latifa tells us how Sheikh Mohammed sees himself above the law for kidnapping princesses from the streets in the UK or a vessel under US jurisdiction and disappearing others who tried. Her story shows a pattern of abuse over the last twenty years, inhuman treatment, kidnapping, and disappearances on the order of His “Highness” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in total impunity. Latifa should be returned to US Jurisdiction, where she was taken from. She believes no adult woman in the 21st century should be under Islamic male “possessionship.” It is laughable for Sheikh Mohammed to call himself a champion of women’s rights when he tortures and imprisons his own daughters. Despite the words her father’s minions put in her mouth, Latifa is not free; she is a modern-day hero who deserves to be praised for what she tried to achieve.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Herve Jaubert
• Release date: Jun 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798396652781

Book preview

A PRIVATE FAMILY MATTER

The military raid against a retired spy helping a runaway princess.

Hervé Jaubert

SMASHWORD

Copyright © 2023 Hervé Jaubert

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9798396652781

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

CHAPTER 1  HERVÉ

CHAPTER 2  SHAMSA

CHAPTER 3  PANIC

CHAPTER 4   LATIFA

CHAPTER 5  SHAMSA HIDING

CHAPTER 6  SUB BUSINESS

CHAPTER 7  SHAMSA's KIDNAPPING

CHAPTER 8  HERVÉ  SHOOTING

CHAPTER 9  SHAMSA IN PRISON

CHAPTER 10   TIINA

CHAPTER 11  HERVÉ  UNDERWATER

CHAPTER 12  MONA

CHAPTER 13  THE DRUG SUB

CHAPTER 14  SHAMSA BREAKS THE NEWS

CHAPTER 15    LATIFA's 1st  ESCAPE ATTEMPT

CHAPTER  16   DUBAI

CHAPTER  17  LATIFA'S BAIL

CHAPTER 18  MOVE TO DUBAI

CHAPTER 19  LATIFA's RELEASE

CHAPTER 20  WORKING IN DUBAI

CHAPTER 21  PRINCESS BOUCHRA

CHAPTER 22  DUBAI BOAT SHOW

CHAPTER 23  TIINA AND CHRIS

CHAPTER 24  ESCAPE RESEARCH

CHAPTER 25  HERVÉ's ESCAPE

CHAPTER 26  SHAMSA's RELEASE

CHAPTER 27  HERVÉ's BOOK

CHAPTER 28  LATIFA MEETS TIINA

CHAPTER 29  LATIFA CONTACTS HERVÉ

CHAPTER 30  LIVE DROPS

CHAPTER 31  LATIFA's IRISH PASSPORT

CHAPTER  32   LATIFA  TRAINING

CHAPTER 33  LATIFA 2nd ESCAPE ATTEMPT

CHAPTER 34  NOSTROMO

CHAPTER 35  3rd ESCAPE  ATTEMPT

CHAPTER  36   SKYDIVING PRINCESS

CHAPTER 37  FINAL DECISION

CHAPTER 38  TRAINING and RECON

CHAPTER 39  ON THE WAY

CHAPTER 40  THE OMAN SCARE

CHAPTER 41  LATIFA ESCAPES

CHAPTER 42  OMAN PRISON

CHAPTER 43  LATIFA SPEAKS OUT

CHAPTER 44  INDIA BOUND

CHAPTER 45  THE ATTACK

CHAPTER 46  LATIFA's ABDUCTION

CHAPTER 47  RENDITION TO DUBAI

CHAPTER 48  SLEW OF ARRESTS

CHAPTER 49  SECRET PRISON

CHAPTER 50  PRISON RELEASE

CHAPTER 51  GETTING THE HELL OUT

CHAPTER 52  TIINA IS RELEASED

CHAPTER 53  SAILING TO SRI LANKA

CHAPTER 54  THE AFTERMATH

CHAPTER 55  THE PRISON VILLA

CHAPTER 56  INTERPOL

CHAPTER 57  PRINCESS HAYA

CHAPTER 58  SHEIKH MOHAMMED GUILTY

CHAPTER 59  LATIFA's LEAKED VIDEOS

CHAPTER 60  STAGED APPEARANCES

CHAPTER 61  THE FBI ROLE

CHAPTER 62  INCONSISTENCIES

CHAPTER 63  ANSWERS

CHAPTER 64  FREELATIFA RIFT

CHAPTER 65  AFTERWORD

REFERENCES

The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time; the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

This book is based on actual events. Some names, dates and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

In anticipation of denials and controversy, the truthfulness of this book is supported by evidence, published and unpublished official documents. Private emails with Latifa over a period of time of seven years. Court documents, public disclosures, statements, and testimonies of two Palace insiders.

This book also addresses incorrect, false information and untrue reports that have been published in the media.

WARNING

I wrote this book against repeated and direct death threats from Mr. Ahmad Al Saboosi, who spoke for Sheikh Mohammed when I was in Dubai prison. Now, I have decided to speak the truth and tell what happened to us: Princess Latifa, me, my crew, and Tiina.

Dubai sets up great stores through its modernity within the Arab world. But beneath the glitter is an iron-fist and ruthless patriarchal society where all adult females, including princesses' are kept like personal properties behind walls by fathers, brothers, and husbands.

We don’t hear from them; missing, kidnapped, or disappeared princesses, are called private family matters, and the international community does nothing for their freedom.

The few who managed to escape were re-captured, kidnapped, drugged, and brought back to be imprisoned.

This story shows a pattern of abuse over the last twenty years: inhuman treatment, kidnapping, and disappearances on the orders of a despot: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and in total impunity!

PREFACE

This story details the life of Princess Latifa Al Maktoum through my experience and our brutal abduction in international waters by a coalition of Indian and UAE military forces off the coast of India. Sheikh Mohammed used his unlimited power to launch military forces against my yacht to capture Latifa, who had escaped from his clenches, me, and my crew, who helped her escape.

It is a tribute to Princess Latifa and a reminder that she is still deprived of liberty. Latifa is a courageous woman, a true inspiration, and a model to others in similar situations. Her friends told us how kind and considerate she is, while those who kidnapped her and their minions say she is a troubled woman with mental issues. Latifa is an empathetic, warm-hearted, bright woman. She attaches little or no importance to material things. She is a model of fortitude and strength for anyone who has suffered for their beliefs.

I made great strides not to embellish or conflate the story. It is a terrible story; Dubai cannot claim to be a liberal society and a champion of women's rights when its Ruler tortures and denies freedom to his own daughters. Latifa is a hero who should be celebrated and applauded for what she tried to achieve.

I had the privilege of knowing Princess Latifa for seven years. I maintained a long-standing friendship from when we first started communicating in 2011. I was her mentor and guide in the dramatic build-up of her escape from Dubai until I lost everything to help her.

As a young Muslim woman growing up in Dubai, Latifa rejected Sharia law, male guardianship, and the abuses against women. The price she paid for wanting to be free is considerable.

CHAPTER 1  HERVÉ

In the mid-1980s, off the coast of Lebanon, then a plainclothes Navy Ensign, I was driving a high-speed rigid inflatable boat in a covert operation. Beirut was a dangerous place because of the civil war raging between militias. Snipers, car bombs, and artillery killed people indiscriminately. I was racing to shore to extract a high- value local agent.

I was a covert officer and engineer in the French Counter-Espionage, and as a naval officer, I was often in charge of maritime insertions and extractions. In Secret Service tactics, an extraction (exfiltration or exfil in French) is an operation to retrieve personnel from a hostile environment and take them to a safe area controlled by friendly personnel. It’s done by plane, helicopter, boat, or vehicle to cross borders unchecked. Given the high level of preparation we put into it, which involves concealment and deception, it is relatively safe.

I was in radio contact with two colleagues waiting for me at the beach. They were with the package, a high-value agent. I spotted them and rushed to the beach. The operatives were armed and were looking around to check for hostiles and to cover the extraction. When I beached, the operatives got wet and helped the agent get on the boat. After a few words and instructions, I sped off the beach and headed to Larnaca in Cyprus. It would take me over 5 hours to get there at high speed. I had plenty of gas to cover the hundred miles distance, but I had no time to socialize with my guest, which was against the rules. Officers and agents work on a strict need to know basis. Anything outside, you keep it quiet, don’t ask, don’t tell. Besides, I was concentrating on navigation and looking around for hostiles.

I arrived in Larnaca, and officers welcomed the agent. They took him somewhere safe for a debriefing. Then, another officer relieved me on the boat, and a colleague took me to the airport for a flight back to Paris, France. For everybody else, family, friends, and relatives, I was a boring Naval Officer at the French Navy headquarters.

My missions were split between the former communist countries and the Middle East. I did several insertions and extractions, but most of my operations were surveillance, gathering information, or protection, primarily in counter- terrorism operations.

In 1985, France was shaken by a series of terrorist attacks committed by radical Islamists that inspired a new generation of terrorists. Waves of bombing hit sites across Paris, killing innocent bystanders. My field officers and other teams were on the front line to find and neutralize these malfeasants. We uncovered and caught most of them before they hurt anybody; the public would never know about it. During one of these typical days, we uncovered a Palestinian terrorist building an explosive device in his hotel room. We were watching him on monitors from pin holes cameras passed through the walls when I heard that he had planted six bombs already; I did not know where, and he was working on a new one. He planned a major attack with ten remote-controlled bombs! I reported what we knew, and a SWAT team stormed the room to arrest the terro (terrorist). They took him away, but then, I had a really hard time convincing the judge to hand the terrorist over to me so I could have a talk with him to get the location of the bombs. The judge was reluctant; he wanted guarantees that I would not torture the (bad) guy. I told the judge:

Your honor, if you don’t give me the guy, you have fifty dead tomorrow; if you give him to me, we have a chance to avoid the carnage.

The judge handed me over the terrorist; he had no choice; it was a ticking bomb situation. He looked at me as if I was a barbarian. I took the terro to a special facility, and six hours later, I had all the locations of the bombs. All sites were evacuated, and the bomb squad defused four bombs. The bomb disposal technicians had a problem with the last two, so they cleared the area and detonated the devices without hurting anyone.

To speak the truth, I did not even get medieval on the terro; I did not hurt him; much less than the SWATs who beat up his face to a pulp. It was all physics and mental tricks, psychology, and some drugs, just a little bit. I had instilled sheer terror in his mind with special effects in a room built for that purpose. He was in hell and told me everything; I could not stop him from talking. Once I got the information, I handed him over to a case officer for a full debriefing. Afterward, the judge asked me how I got the info:

It’s classified, your honor; you’d have to ask the Director.

A few years later, after fifteen years of Service, I retired as Lieutenant commander. (Capitaine de Corvette, in French Navy rank). Although I cut all ties with my former Service, some people in the intelligence community who knew me sometimes referred me to private individuals who needed my confidential expertise to resolve a problem.

As a result, in 1999, I received an inquiry from a French family who asked me to free one of their relatives held against her will on a Caribbean Island. She called for help when she realized she had married the wrong guy who was abusing her. After reviewing the case, I accepted to take the job. Her husband kept her in a remote and fenced waterfront property. I contacted the woman through an agent, a local farmer the family had hired to pass letters to her through the front gate. We worked for three months to set up a marine extraction. It was challenging because she did not have a phone, and no mobile phone network or the Internet was available there. I flew to a French island to set up a base, rented a 35 ft sailboat, and bought the needed equipment. I told the woman she needed to access the beach without raising suspicion, so for a month, she went for a walk at the beach next to the house, watching the sunset and returning to her bedroom after dark. She gave this new routine to the people at the house, and they got used to it.

On the day of the extraction, she came out of the house wearing just a shirt, shorts, and barefoot, so she didn't look like she was going anywhere.

I had anchored the boat on a remote island 5 miles away; I put a two-person kayak in the water and paddled my way to her location. I arrived at dusk and waited a bit for darkness to set. I saw her walking at the beach with a flashlight; I blinked the flashlight two times to let her know I was coming. She checked her background to ensure no one was watching and flashed her flashlight once. I got to the beach, and she climbed into the kayak. I left immediately, and we paddled for 3 hours to get back on the boat. The people at the house found her bedroom empty in the morning, but we were long gone by then.

It took me five days to sail to a French Island where her family awaited. When I docked, the family cheered, overjoyed; they hugged and kissed each other; they were overwhelmed with emotions to see her again after a two years separation that they forgot I was there. It was ok for me, it was just a job, but I was happy. I returned my rental boat and was on the next plane to the U.S. It was my first civilian extraction.

I landed in Miami, Florida, in June 2000. I started a company to design, build and operate recreational submarines. I didn't plan to do more extractions, not suspecting the next one would be mine.

CHAPTER 2  SHAMSA

In June 2000, in the U.K, the Dubai Maktoum family members arrived at their Valleyhood estate in Surrey to escape from the stifling summer in Dubai and enjoy the cool weather in the British countryside. The 80M Dollars exclusive property is part of the vast empire of luxury estates across the UK owned by Sheikh Mohammed. It lies within rich green lands and a mosaic of woodland, rivers, and heath. The media wrongfully calls it the Longcross property, but it’s in Valleyhood near Woking, a town fifty kilometers West of London.

A few days after their arrival, one of the family members, a young woman wearing Jeans and sneakers, appeared to be hiding behind bushes and peeping on the guards and staff on the premises. She noticed the guards had left the main gate open, and the gatekeeper had dozed off in his booth. She jumped on the opportunity and sneaked inside a Range Rover parked in the courtyard without hesitation. She sank into the driver’s seat and locked the doors. She found the key on the dashboard and started the car. Then, she drove through the open gate. The staff were caught off guard and ran around crazy, waving their arms to try and stop her. They slammed shut the gate behind the car too late, and in the tumult, they jammed it. The guards could not re-open the gate to run after her. She sped off and disappeared on the road.

The guards were stuck inside the property, cursing against the gate, unable to go after the car. By the time they unblocked the portal, the woman was gone. She did not know that the guards could not chase her and was driving frantically, looking behind to see if they were following. She did not know where she was going, looking for direction everywhere. She drove North to avoid London traffic when she saw the first road signs. After a hundred kilometers in the countryside, she reached the city of Cambridge. She thought it was far enough from Valleyhood to be safe. She parked the car at a grocery store and abandoned the Range Rover. She walked away and disappeared into the streets.

The young woman on the run was Shamsa Al Maktoum, nineteen years old and the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed, the Crown Prince of Dubai at the time. Latifa, fourteen years old, and Shamsa’s young sister, stayed in Dubai. Shamsa did not tell Latifa that she planned to run away. She did not expect it but jumped at the opportunity when she saw it. Shamsa had secretly wished for some time to escape the Islamic male guardianship screed imposed on women.

All women in Dubai, kids, adults, and princesses, may act with permission from a male relative. In marriage, they are not free to choose their husband either. No one has the right to force a girl to marry someone, but she does not have the right to marry without her guardian’s permission. Women are groomed not to approach men or to travel alone. They can’t drive, open a bank account or apply for a passport by themselves. Under Sharia law and within the palace walls, princesses’ are mere possessions under the absolute authority of Sheik Mohammed. Dubai is no different than Saudi Arabia. Sharia Law is the law of the land, and its restrictions apply to everyone, Muslims and non-muslims alike. However, Sharia Law does not apply in England, not yet.

Shamsa wanted to be emancipated and get away from her father's clutches to do what all women in the West are entitled to do; live a life of her own. Being 19 years old, Shamsa knew that in the UK, she was an adult and a free woman with all the rights to decide for herself.

Now, Shamsa was facing a stark challenge, alone in a foreign city with no place to live, no passport, and little money to live on. She had saved her allowance for months and put aside sixty thousand US Dollars. She planned to last a year with it, including her lawyer’s fees. Then, she would need to find a source of income or count on her sisters in Dubai to send her money. She had no credit card or bank account but was determined to live a free woman away from her father. She had passed the point of no return; if she returned home or if they caught her, her father would put her in a hole.

She called a friend in London who came right away to help her book a hotel room for her.

Shamsa started to look for reporters and lawyers for help through the yellow pages. She just had one of those flip phones; smartphones did not exist yet, and the Internet was in its infancy. She had little experience with online searches. The first lawyers she contacted told her they could not help her because she was not a victim. She was free to go wherever she wanted. Others did not respond, because they did not believe her or because they found that a runaway Arab princess, an adult in the British countryside, was a far-fetched story. How can you be a runaway when you are an adult? Emirati male guardianship and chaperoning were alien concepts in England. No one would understand.

CHAPTER 3  PANIC

Panic swelled at the estate. Everybody feared the Sheikh’s wrath because he held them accountable for letting his daughter run away. Security scrambled a search party, and family members reported that a daughter ran away! They used the word daughter to make it sound like she was a minor to justify a police search. Shamsa was undeniably the Sheikh’s daughter, but she was an adult. Under UK or Western law, she could do whatever she wanted under the sun. Not much so in Islam, though; there is no such a thing as emancipation for a woman when she turns 18. Sheikh Mohammed tried to justify the Police’s help by claiming that in Dubai, the majority is 21. Not only does Dubai law not apply in the UK, but it’s not even true! The majority at 21 in Dubai applies to boys! Girls are persistent minors for life. They remain under the mandatory guardianship of a father, a husband, or a brother, for their whole life.

The constitution of the UAE stipulates that all people, regardless of race, nationality, religion, or social position, are equal before the law. But what about women? The word Gender doesn’t even figure in the law.

AL Shaibani was a superintendent working for Sheikh Mohammed in the UK and was in charge of resolving the crisis. He trembled when he called Sheikh Mohammed. The conversation must have sounded like this:

AL Shaibani

My respects, your Highness, this is Al Shaibani at Valleyhood.

Shk Mohammed

Yes. What is it?

AL Shaibani

"Erm, it's your daughter, your Highness,

Sheikha Shamsa - we have a problem."

Shk Mohammed

Now what?

AL Shaibani

"Erm - Your Highness – Erm - She ran away this afternoon.

She stole a car and drove off the estate;

we don’t know where she is."

Shk Mohammed

"Whaaaat? Arghhhh! Nooo! What a bunch of maggots;

what am I paying you for? How could you let her go?"

AL Shaibani

We are on it, your highness.

Shk Mohammed

"Don't give me your we are on it, dumb excuse.

And how could she drive? Who showed her how to drive anyway?"

"Look, you find her, or you are history, all of you idiots, you better find her,

NOW! Or you'll stand post in the desert next week."

AL Shaibani

"Erm, yes, your Highness, I understand,

and what do we say to the media?"

Shk Mohammed

Tell them it's a private family matter, like before!

Enraged, he hung up on him.

Nervous and afraid, Al Shaibani sent everybody to look for Shamsa. Because she was an adult, the Police would not be involved. There was no ground to file a missing person report in the UK.

Sheikh Mohammed called Suleiman, his right-hand man, for a meeting at the Palace; the conversation must have sounded like this:

Shk Mohammed

Alhamdulillah, come in Suleiman

Suleiman

Alhamdulillah your Highness.

Shk Mohammed

"Suleiman, I have a situation - in the UK,

one of my daughters ran away."

Suleiman

Oh, who, your highness?

Shk Mohammed

Shamsa,

Suleiman

Oh, no. Do you know where she is?

Shk Mohammed

"No. That's why I want you to find her ASAP.

I don't want her to talk to anybody,reporters,

or I don't know what parasites looking for a story.

Contact the local police for help."

Suleiman

"Erm. Your Highness, Shamsa is 18 or 19, right?

She is an adult there; the police won't help us."

Shk Mohammed

"Ah, shit, to hell these infidels with their made-up laws!

Ok then, fly our guys there to find her and bring her back here.

Top priority!"

Suleiman

"We will trace her phone and check with her friends;

we'll find her, your Highness."

Shk Mohammed

"Find out who helped her. She did not do that all

by herself; somebody coached her and taught her how to drive."

Suleiman

Yes, your Highness.

Suleiman left Sheikh Mohammed's office.

CHAPTER 4   LATIFA

Latifa's full name is HH Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum She was born in Dubai on December 5th, 1985. HH stands for Her Highness. Some ignorant sycophants pretending to know everything call her HRH to show off. HRH stands for Her Royal Highness. However, there are no royals in Dubai or the UAE because it's not a kingdom; it's an Emirate. Even Sheikh Mohammed is HH, not HRH.

Sheikha in Arabic translates into Princess. It’s a title given to a female ruling family member at birth.

Bin in Arabic means Son of, and Bint means daughter of. Thus the literal translation of her full name is Her Highness Princess Latifa, daughter of Mohammed, son of Rashid Al Maktoum.

Latifa’s mother is Houria Ahmed Lamara from Algeria. Houria’s mother was Moroccan; because of that, she is often referred to by mistake as the Moroccan wife of Sheikh Mohammed. She doesn’t have a Sheikha bloodline, and people ignore her at most public events.

Latifa was one out of thirty-one children of Sheikh Mohammed from at least six mothers. Not all children knew who their birth mother was. They had maids and nurses to take care of them.

Latifa had two sisters, Maitha and Shamsa, five and four years older, and a younger brother, Majid.

Like any children, they asked questions, where is my father, who is my mummy, and who are you? These were uncomfortable questions that nobody in the Palace wanted to hear or answer.

Sheikh Mohammed distanced himself from most of his children, apart from the crown prince's to-be and his heir males, not because he did not like children but because running the state kept him busy.

Every time he made an appearance, we were all struck with a mixture of awe and despair,

All eyes in the room were on him, said Latifa. Who is that man? some asked.Is that the one we saw on TV? another might whisper.

Latifa did not know her father. He never talked to her one to one like a father would, and he never guided her. It was always formal, five minutes every three years, during public or family events. She felt like she had no father; she just carried his name.

An army of servants and nurses groomed all the children early to worship and admire her father, but Latifa always wondered why; it certainly wasn’t thanks to his parenting skills. Latifa never considered him as her dad; she doesn't remember anything about him being a father. Sure, he was a good provider, but he was never there for her; he had relinquished that role long ago. She could not remember a hug or a bedtime story.

Latifa has two half-sisters with the same name. Her grandmother is also named Latifa. That's four Latifas' in the Maktoum's already; a bit confusing!

Latifa also has a half-brother in Lebanon who has been denied a passport and UAE citizenship. He did not do anything wrong, but he was born to the wrong mother—a Christian at that. Latifa also had a half-sister, Pamela, living in Syria. The family kept out of sight until she could no longer tolerate being treated like a Nursery assistant and decided to leave.

Latifa lived with an aunt for the first ten years, acting as her mother. When Latifa discovered she was not her biological mother, she was shocked. She learned that she had been gifted by her real mother to her aunt when she was six months old. Nobody except Latifa seemed to be disturbed by that. It was all ok that children got swapped around in the Palace. Latifa always felt something odd about the relationship with her mother.

This disturbing revelation made Latifa realize that she had no protection from the whims of those entrusted to look after her. Latifa's childhood was a lie, and her birth mother never gave her any explanation. They swapped her younger brother Majid too! Three months after his birth, his mother handed him to Latifa's aunt. Latifa’s mother went along with this swapping trend, maybe thinking it might be better for brother and sister to be together.

For Latifa, her mother was a pitiful woman who lacked the courage to stand up for her children. Shamsa had lived with her mother and had never been separated, so she had a closer bond. Shamsa was the one who told Latifa about the aunt and voiced for Latifa to reunite with her mother. Because of this, Latifa has always felt indebted to Shamsa. Latifa reunited with her birth mother in 1996, but she never got along with her and always felt that her mother had abandoned her. It stained their relationship from the start. The two daughters eventually ran away on separate occasions a few years later.

Latifa went to school at the Dubai English Speaking School and later at the International School of Choueifat followed by one year at the Latifa School for Girls. She loved it there because she met foreigners. She enjoyed the interaction with multicultural students. It was a window to the outside of the Islamic ideology. She realized that her Islamic curriculum kept her away from many topics.

Latifa never felt like a princess. She had no sovereign power and never would. Nobody worshiped her like a British Royal either, nor that she would want. She was just a member of the ruling family, for that matter, and people outside the Palace envied her for the richness she lived in.

From an early age, family members told her that her father’s reputation was the most important thing to maintain. The family taught her to follow the rules or face dire consequences.

The first rule was to be subservient to her father, the tribal leader, and Ruler. Respect for her father was forced, not earned. She was watched 24/7 by squads of maids, drivers, staff, workers, guards, and chaperones who had the duty to report any unpredictable behavior.

She quickly learned that women in the Maktoum family were mere properties with little or no say. Their activities were limited to shopping, horse riding, or sports. A handful of them chaired some government organizations mostly to back up claims that Sheikh Mohammed was a champion for women's rights.

Latifa rebelled against everything that her father stood for. Women in the Palace lived in a golden cage ingrained in a code of silence. From the outside, the Palace shone a picture of lavishness, but inside, the fear of pitiless finality for disobedience had broken the spirit of almost these women. And they did not even know it; they lived in denial. They had chosen to comply with a comfortable life with rewards and allowances.

Latifa lived in a mansion with her mother, two sisters, and brother. It was a four-aisle Palace with forty rooms, an indoor swimming pool, gym and spa, a hundred servants, and even a private Zoo. She didn’t want to call her house home; she called it the house and hated living in it. Latifa had a generous allowance, with all her extra-curricular activities paid for by her father’s office. She had access to her father's exclusive Zabeel stables: A world-class state-of-the-art equestrian facility with over a hundred pampered horses on acres of lush green grass and vibrant multicolor flowers.

Latifa’s mother didn’t allow visitors inside the mansion, nor did she allow Latifa to meet any boys outside under any circumstances. She could not meet any girls either without them being fully vetted. After she turned 18, she was still considered a minor; Latifa knew she would never be emancipated. She could not attend university, drive a car or have a bank account. She knew that eventually, the family would choose a husband for her, just like for her sisters. In the Middle East and Dubai, if you dare ask a married Arab woman if she chose her husband, you will be considered rude and looked at as having a mental problem.

It is so enshrined in the Islamic culture that Latifa knew she would spend her whole life under the guardianship of her father, a brother, or a husband. She felt suffocating in her family. Her mother was also very religious, so anything like dancing or music was haram (forbidden]). Latifa, just like her sister Shamsa, wanted none of that. She wanted to make her own decisions without fear or influence.

CHAPTER 5  SHAMSA HIDING

Soon after she ran away, Shamsa called Latifa. She was in a coffee shop at a mall in Dubai when her phone rang. Her chaperone waited outside, watching over her. Latifa was the first in the family to hear from her directly; it was a huge surprise.

Hey, Sis. I’ve done it, that’s it, I got out, I made it.

Latifa turned over so the chaperone in the background couldn’t see her face.

What? Wow. Yepeeeee! Oh, this is fantastic. I’m so glad for you. Are you safe? You know our father is going to go ballistic because of you.

Shamsa

Oh, you bet - I am sure his goons are after me already.

Latifa

Wow. Damn, how did you make it out?

Shamsa

"I was watching them

Reviews for A Private Family Matter

[Olivia Benavides · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I hope this book gets the attention it deserves and that maybe, finally we can make the devil feel so defeated, that he will give her to us beck in America. It’s a true tragedy that these men manage to conduct their lives as if they are gods.