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vary based on how you buy. Princess

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Shamsa hasn't been seen in public since the

0:44

day her father's men captured her on a

0:46

street in England and she was flown

0:48

back to Dubai in a private jet. Pictures

0:51

of other members of Dubai's royal family

0:53

show up on social media and in

0:55

magazines that cover royals. You

0:57

can see Sheikh Mohammed's wives and sons

0:59

and daughters participating in Olympic events or

1:02

going skydiving or watching horses race

1:04

at Ascot, but not Shamsa. Shamsa's

1:07

sister Latifah has said in writings and

1:10

recordings that after Shamsa was caught, she

1:12

was kept drugged and she was

1:15

watched constantly. Latifah wasn't allowed

1:17

to see her. As

1:19

the months went by, it became clear to Latifah

1:21

that no one from the outside world was coming

1:23

to help. So two

1:25

years after Shamsa was abducted and brought back

1:28

to Dubai, Latifah decided

1:30

to take matters into her own hands.

1:33

I decided I'm going to escape. I'm

1:35

going to leave UAE. I'm going to find a lawyer

1:37

in another country. Like I'm going

1:39

to go to Oman. I'm going to just go there and I'm

1:41

going to find a lawyer or something and I'm going to help

1:43

Shamsa. And the worst case scenario, if they catch me, they're going

1:46

to put me with her. I'm going to be in prison with

1:48

her so at least I can see her and I'm happy and

1:50

she has her sister with her. In

1:52

2002, when she was just 16, Latifah

1:55

made her first attempt. New

2:00

Yorker obtained Princess Lucky Says written account

2:02

of what happened next. An

2:06

escape from my mother's house in the early

2:08

hours of June. Fifteen Two thousand and Two.

2:11

I used a letter to scale. The Wall of

2:13

the Good and I was wearing a black

2:15

to stash and had a large sections on

2:17

top. Despite the heat, I didn't want to

2:19

be recognized as a girl or draw attention

2:21

to myself. I was wearing pants and a

2:24

nice and blue gray sketches sees. A

2:26

cut my hair. Very sure. maybe one inch of

2:28

the harem I had remained. I

2:31

began walking the dog streets looking for a

2:33

taxi. I remember the driver

2:35

said there are you going mom and my

2:37

heart sank despite my outfit and. Shabbiness. I

2:40

still that like a doll. Everything was

2:42

so new I'd never been in a

2:44

taxi. Or outside alone. I

2:48

was in an area. Close to them on. He dropped

2:50

me off on a street. I

2:52

could see the night was disappearing. And

2:54

the sunrise was curious. I

2:57

think I had a slim. I also had a

2:59

nice it would be fun than your knuckles. I

3:03

also remember having wire cutters with me and

3:05

using it to go through a sense. I

3:07

remember walking on the sand narrow road, Then

3:10

a big army car came up to

3:12

me and many camouflage outfits told me

3:15

to stop. Soon.

3:18

Costs. It, She was

3:21

just. It's

3:35

the story of why the women in Sigma from.

3:37

Had been Ross's family keep trying

3:39

to run away and what happens

3:41

to them when they do. This

3:44

is episode to. Escape.

3:49

Study. Blake. Piece together the teeth a story

3:52

from letters. The Princess route. Along

3:54

with audio and video recordings and interviews

3:56

with people in her life. Society.

3:59

Tell me what happened. next after these

4:01

men catch Latifah. Latifah

4:03

was taken home where she was brutally

4:06

beaten by her father's guards. There's

4:08

a detail in her account of this I find

4:10

really striking, which is that her

4:12

mother was there during this beating. She

4:14

remembered that her mother had a full face

4:16

of makeup on and she was wearing this

4:18

frosty coloured lilac lipstick and

4:21

Latifah figured that her mother must have been expecting her

4:23

father to visit because she was all dressed up that

4:25

way. And her

4:27

mother watched as Latifah was beaten until

4:29

blood poured out of her nose. And

4:34

my father is the right hand man, put me in

4:36

prison. Yeah,

4:40

they put me in prison and they tortured me. She

4:43

was taken to a prison in the desert

4:45

called Alawe'ah and she'd hoped that she'd be

4:47

placed with a chamois but she wasn't. She

4:49

was held in a solitary cell and sometimes

4:51

in complete darkness. She remembered

4:53

that she had a filthy bloodstained

4:56

mattress and she wasn't

4:58

given any soap or toothbrush, she had

5:00

no clean clothes. And she remembered

5:02

night after night that she was yanked from her

5:04

bed and dragged away to be beaten. She talked

5:06

about how the guards beat her feet with a

5:08

heavy wooden cane so badly that all the bones

5:10

in her feet were shattered and she couldn't walk

5:12

and she had to drag herself to the toilet

5:14

and drink from a tap on the floor. They

5:17

told me that your father told us to

5:21

beat you until we kill you. That's

5:23

his orders, your father's orders. Your

5:27

father, the ruler of Dubai,

5:30

that's what he said. Back

5:36

in her cell Latifah remembered shoving her

5:38

mangled feet into her sketches hoping that

5:40

they'd act as some kind of a cast. I

5:43

should say that Sheikh Mohammed's attorneys deny that

5:45

he imprisoned or mistreated Latifah. And

5:48

then after about a year

5:50

in prison Latifah was suddenly released

5:53

and when she got back to her mother's house she showered

5:55

again and again. There was

5:57

warm water, there was soap, there was a towel.

6:00

There was toothbrushes, there was clothes, I couldn't

6:02

believe it. But she wasn't

6:04

out for long. After about

6:06

a week, she suddenly broke down. She just

6:08

screamed over and over again that she wanted

6:11

to see her sister, Shamsa. She

6:13

was sedated and sent back to prison. And

6:16

this time, they held her there for more than two

6:18

years. When she finally got out, she

6:20

was 19. Did

6:25

Latifah realize she was risking that kind of punishment

6:27

when she ran away? Well,

6:29

she certainly realized that defiance from women was

6:31

not going to be tolerated in her family.

6:34

And she knew, of course, what had happened to her

6:36

sister, Shamsa. And she had another lesson

6:38

in just how risky defying her father could

6:40

be. From watching what happened

6:43

to another princess named Bouchara. Bouchara

6:49

was a prominent member of Dubai's royal family.

6:51

At one point, she was basically the first lady

6:53

of Dubai. She was married

6:55

to the man who was the ruler of

6:58

Dubai before Sheikh Mohammed, his older brother, Sheikh

7:00

Muktoum. So she was Princess Latifah's

7:02

aunt? Exactly. Bouchara

7:05

had married into Dubai's royal family very

7:07

young. She was still a teenager

7:09

when she married Sheikh Muktoum, who was almost 30

7:11

years older. In 2000, which

7:13

was the same year Shamsa escaped, Bouchara

7:16

went to London with her three young

7:18

sons. And she made some pretty

7:20

bold moves. She gave an

7:22

interview to Hello! magazine. They ran a whole spread

7:24

of photos of her in which

7:26

she declared that women should have more rights.

7:29

And she said that she wanted the women in her country

7:31

to have the courage to show what they could

7:33

do. Not to be shy, not to be timid.

7:36

And these are inflammatory pronouncements for the wife

7:39

of the then ruler. Her

7:41

behaviour obviously crossed a major line because

7:44

in the spring of 2000, Shaker Bouchara

7:46

was kidnapped. Kidnapped? Yeah,

7:49

so we now have another Emirati woman who

7:51

was kidnapped from the United Kingdom in the year of

7:53

2000. This was just

7:55

a few months before Shamsa was kidnapped. And

7:58

it's another occasion, by the way, when the British also... totally

8:00

look the other way and allow this to happen. So

8:03

Bouchard thought that she was taking a trip to Paris

8:05

with her husband to go and watch the horse racing,

8:07

and she got on his private jet, but when she

8:09

got on it turned out she wasn't going to France

8:12

for the races, she was being taken back to Dubai.

8:14

And at the same time a bunch of Emirati

8:16

guards showed up to take her sons. Their

8:19

nanny called the police, and police tracked

8:21

them to the airport and they stormed

8:23

onto the runway, surrounded the jet and

8:25

stopped it from leaving. So

8:28

Dubai authorities now have this major problem, like

8:30

the British police are holding up the ruler's

8:32

plane. So they get on

8:34

the phone to their ambassador, the ambassador

8:36

to the UK, and they tell him get

8:39

the police to get out of the way and

8:41

let that plane take off. And so he picks

8:43

up the phone to Britain's ambassador to UAE, a

8:45

guy called Patrick Nixon. In

8:47

the middle of the night, the

8:49

UAE ambassador to London called me

8:52

and said, I believe I'll be

8:54

there. Patrick Nixon is retired now, but when I

8:56

phoned him he still remembered getting this call about

8:58

the standoff at the airport. The

9:01

ambassador wanted me to get in touch with the

9:03

police and say, tell them to clear

9:05

off. And I

9:08

said, I can't possibly tell the

9:11

police what to do. The police have every

9:13

right to do what they want to do.

9:15

And he was pretty cross with me and

9:17

that was the end of it. This

9:21

is a kind of rare moment in this story

9:23

where a British official says, no, I'm

9:25

not going to do that. Like Patrick Nixon says, I'm

9:27

not going to help you. If you've got a problem, you can take it

9:30

up with the foreign office. And so as far as we

9:32

know, the ambassador then did call the foreign office. And

9:34

the next thing that happened was lo and behold,

9:36

the plane was indeed allowed to take off. I

9:39

know that that wife was

9:41

then locked up in a

9:44

villa in Dubai for a very

9:46

long time. One

9:48

source with close ties to the royal family told

9:50

me they made her house prisoner

9:52

and they would just keep drugging her with

9:54

tranquilizers to say that she's crazy. And

9:57

then in 2006, Bouchra's

10:00

husband, Sheikh Mount Tum, the ruler

10:02

of Dubai, died, and his

10:04

brother, Sheikh Mohammed, came to power. And

10:07

Sheikh Mohammed is Latifa's father? Exactly.

10:10

And soon after he ascended, Bouchra suddenly

10:12

died. She

10:15

was only 34 years old, and

10:17

no official statement was ever made by the

10:20

Dubai royal family about her death. No explanation

10:22

was given. Rumours were

10:24

circulated that she'd somehow died in her sleep. While

10:27

Latifa believed firmly that her father had

10:29

had his brother's wife killed. After

10:32

a long time, he killed her. One

10:34

of his wives. He killed her. Everyone knows about

10:37

it. The Moroccan one? I

10:40

think she just talked to much

10:42

and he felt threatened by her, so

10:44

he just killed her. Sheikh

10:50

Mohammed's lawyers deny this, but Latifa's account

10:53

of Bouchra's death was supported by two

10:55

sources close to the royal family. One

10:58

of them told me, quote, they had no

11:00

mercy. They killed her because she was

11:02

a problem for them. She was a

11:04

strong woman who would stand for her rights. A

11:07

former member of the Sheikh's personal staff told

11:09

me she was killed off. Here

11:12

one minute, gone the next. Latifa

11:15

said in a letter to a friend that Bouchra

11:17

had been beaten to death by one of the

11:19

same guards who'd cain her in prison. After

11:22

Bouchra died, Latifa's mother said to her,

11:25

see what could have happened to you. You're

11:27

lucky you're alive. What

11:34

I'm not quite understanding about all

11:36

these stories, Shamsa, Latifa, Bouchra, is

11:39

the why. What is the

11:41

reason for kidnapping these women and then maybe

11:43

even killing one of them? I

11:46

think what happens to Bouchra is this really

11:48

chilling example of what happens to a woman

11:50

In the Royal Family in Dubai Who

11:53

threatens this narrative? Sheikh Mohammed is so

11:55

keen to project that he is this

11:57

benevolent ruler, but one who exerts absolute

12:00

power over his people and therefore over

12:02

the women in his family. And.

12:05

Women: the into buys royal family occupy.

12:07

This really wrenching dual role were

12:09

on the ones and that kind

12:11

of held up as like props

12:13

in St. Muhammad's. Nurse

12:15

has. Were by He

12:18

wants to portray himself as a champion of

12:20

women's rights in the region. As a progressive

12:22

leader like this is so key to his

12:24

presentation of himself and the west and in

12:26

his his dealings with be on the international

12:28

stage. but at. The same time at home

12:31

and you're a he. He needs to protect

12:33

himself as a traditional Arab leader and and

12:35

therefore somebody. Who acts as a great

12:37

deal of authority over his subjects and over the

12:39

women and his family. And say when women

12:42

step out of line, they need to be. Dealt with

12:44

swiftly and publicly. One expert I spoke to

12:46

describe this to me as a kind of

12:48

performative patriarchy. It's almost as if Sent Mohammed

12:50

is saying that you want to watch me

12:53

deal with the women and my family. Will

12:55

he go? From. So.

12:59

Let's he said, gets out of prison for

13:01

answers or dies just after that. Then

13:03

what happens? Well. And

13:05

years after she got our tails, he wasn't

13:08

allowed to travel. She. Wasn't allowed to

13:10

study as he was kept under constant

13:12

god. She. Was allowed gradually.

13:14

To start to see some activities

13:16

so she could go shopping with

13:18

chaperones and eventually she was allowed

13:21

to take up sports like scuba

13:23

diving and skydiving, but never unsupervised.

13:25

And. One of the man he was assigned to daughter was

13:27

the guy had helped to talk to her in prison.

13:30

says. She'd be out like that. The races. Or

13:32

scuba diving at the beach. And that he'd

13:34

be this guy who'd hell's had down. As

13:36

have feet were chained until all the bones

13:39

were broken. So.

13:41

It might look like see was free, but really, she

13:43

was still. Being. Watched incredibly

13:45

closely, Exactly. What?

13:48

About what he says: Sister Samsung, What's happening

13:50

with her during all this. Was.

13:52

So about three years after that he for was

13:54

released from prison and eight years off. To some

13:57

they had of initially escapes sounds. It was

13:59

finally released from prison and allowed to come

14:01

home to their mother's house. Since.

14:04

He does it just longs. For this moment.

14:06

But when it came the reunion was

14:08

really, really agonizing. She wrote that sums

14:10

it was only a sale of have

14:12

for myself with all the willpower talks

14:14

at our suffer. The teaser. Rate and

14:16

one letter. She. Was like

14:19

a zombie. With all the drugs they forced

14:21

her to take for few years after she

14:23

came out prison, she didn't even open her

14:25

eyes, partly because. Nice to just lie in bed

14:27

all day, to have to have someone hold her

14:29

hand. And walk from around. How

14:32

much they determined to her. And she

14:34

also had suicide attempts. That.

14:38

He said great that she really struggled

14:40

to get close to sounds or again,

14:42

And she found herself grappling with a lot of

14:44

feelings of anger. Towards her sister for the

14:46

mistakes that she'd made when she tried to

14:49

escape the cooling one of her father's dogs

14:51

and other thing she did that the teeth

14:53

of the or reckless. Was.

14:55

Almost like receiver started to blame sounds Of

14:57

for her own ceiling that she had to

14:59

escape to save her sister and and all

15:02

of the awful consequences that had followed from

15:04

that. For her the years of imprisonment and

15:06

the taught said that she suffered she felt

15:08

the she does. All of that the some

15:10

there and she thought incredibly frustrated with her

15:12

sister. but she also loved her desperately and

15:14

still wanted to help her. The.

15:18

Teaser rate and one lesser. I

15:21

think I find it hard getting close to her as

15:23

we were best friends the forty thousand and she was

15:25

taken away from me. For eight years. I

15:28

think it's hard to put myself through the has done. Because

15:30

I almost died and ruined my life to

15:33

her. And I'm still upset that she

15:35

was so reckless. I don't

15:37

know if I can trust have anything. Bad.

15:39

The same time, she has no one else who fight

15:41

or her. This is the hardest

15:44

decision of my life. The hardest

15:46

decision of her life. But

15:50

it seemed mean by that was she was

15:52

trying to decide. Was by this a try?

15:54

To escape again. In.

15:57

the end she decided it was the only

15:59

way to get help for Shamsa and

16:02

to free herself. She

16:04

began working on a plan. That's

16:17

me setting my iPhone on the table at a cafe

16:19

in London where I met up with a close friend

16:21

of Latifah's. Her name is Tina

16:23

Yaffaini. But do you want to go to something

16:25

before we start? Ah, yes.

16:27

Ah, just coffee. Good night, there.

16:29

Definitely a coffee. Tina

16:32

ordered an almond milk latte. I

16:35

found out later that after she became friends

16:37

with Latifah, she also became vegan. Latifah

16:39

didn't eat any meat or dairy, she was

16:41

a huge animal lover. Tina

16:44

was kind of a fascinating character. She

16:46

was very poised and powerfully built, wearing

16:48

all black, a jumper, jeans and boots.

16:51

She has white blonde hair and these really

16:53

frank blue eyes. How did

16:55

Tina end up meeting Latifah? Tina

16:58

told me she grew up on a flower

17:00

farm in Finland, in this tiny town surrounded

17:02

by scores of lakes. It

17:04

was really claustrophobic. She was desperate to get away

17:06

and desperate to travel and see the world. She

17:09

moved to Dubai in 2001 and initially she worked in

17:12

the hotel industry. But she

17:14

started getting interested in Kaipuera, which is a

17:17

kind of martial art. She became the administrator

17:19

for a local Kaipuera group. So

17:21

in 2010 I remember getting into

17:23

email from this girl who said,

17:26

oh, I'm an Arab female. I

17:29

would like to learn Kaipuera.

17:32

But this person didn't want to come to

17:34

classes, which is how Tina says you would

17:36

usually go about learning Kaipuera, you practice together.

17:39

Eventually the two of them arranged to meet

17:41

and Tina got an address. It

17:43

wasn't until she got there that she realised that she'd

17:45

been sent to a private recreation complex which

17:48

was connected to stables owned by Sheikh

17:50

Bahamid. We met

17:52

at the stables and then I

17:54

realised, oh my God, she must

17:56

be part of this rolling rolling.

18:00

family or something. So

18:02

the place where they were going

18:04

to practice was this huge echoing

18:06

space surrounded by pictures of Sheikh

18:08

Mohammed and favoured children. Latifa showed

18:10

up there with guards who swept the complex to make sure

18:13

there were no men inside before she was allowed to enter.

18:16

And how did Latifa seem to Tina? Well,

18:19

Tina said Latifa struck her as small

18:21

and unassuming. She struggled to make

18:23

eye contact, but she was

18:25

struck by how fiercely Latifa threw herself

18:27

into the training. She was obsessed and

18:29

wanted to work out every single day.

18:35

We did hour and a half sessions and she would

18:37

be like wanting to do

18:39

them every day, even on weekends. Really?

18:41

Yeah, and that's that. I do want

18:43

to say that's quite a lot, you

18:46

know? Latifa

18:49

was working out so intensively and Tina

18:51

noticed it was almost as if she didn't want to

18:53

show that she was capable of getting tired. But

18:55

eventually when she began to get worn out, she

18:58

would ask if maybe they could stop and just

19:00

chat for a while. And then

19:02

they'd order food and just sit and talk.

19:05

Latifa seemed so curious about what

19:07

seemed like really mundane aspects of Tina's

19:09

life. During breaks she'd asked for

19:11

things like what Tina ate for breakfast. And when she

19:13

found out that Tina had never tried exotic fruits

19:16

that she loved like star fruit or custard

19:18

apples, she'd bring them in next time for

19:20

Tina to try. I thought it was so

19:22

sweet. So somehow we just like, you

19:25

know, started hanging out a bit more,

19:27

you know. Tina found out that Latifa

19:29

was really good fun. She was a

19:32

great adventure partner. You know, she always

19:34

asked for something new

19:37

and interesting, right? So

19:40

I liked that a lot

19:42

about her. Latifa took Tina

19:45

skiing on Dubai's ski slope, the one with

19:47

the live penguins, and then they started

19:49

skydiving together. And Latifa

19:51

seemed fearless, like at their first class she

19:53

was the only person to jump solo

19:55

without an instructor in tandem. And

19:57

then after that she just jumped again and again. and

20:00

then again she started wingsuit flying and then

20:02

jumping out of hot air balloons and

20:04

soon enough Tina and Latifah were spending nearly

20:06

every single day together. Tina

20:09

said they got really close, it was almost as

20:11

if they were sisters but still

20:13

Latifah seemed to be keeping secrets from her

20:16

for years and then one day

20:18

about seven years after they first met they

20:20

were having lunch. Yes we were in the restaurant

20:22

for television and

20:32

Latifah started telling Tina what had

20:34

happened to Shamsa, how she'd

20:36

run away and then been kidnapped and

20:39

since then Latifah told Tina that Shamsa had

20:41

been guarded and sedated around the clock

20:44

and she told her how she'd tried to escape herself

20:46

to help her sister and how

20:48

Latifah herself had then been caught

20:51

and imprisoned for years. Tina was

20:53

shocked and she asked Latifah why didn't you

20:55

tell me this before? You know it's

20:57

almost like she was in partner and

21:01

even if it's not if they all the

21:03

way around I think by

21:14

the time Latifah finished telling the story Tina

21:17

remembers that both women were crying I

21:19

felt much closer to her and

21:21

I felt like so much anger

21:23

towards the people who had done

21:26

it with her and like I

21:28

really felt for her like oh

21:30

my god the life would be

21:32

so horrible. Latifah told Tina that now

21:34

she was planning to try again to escape

21:36

from Dubai. Like when

21:38

you help like can you help me?

21:40

You know and I was like yeah

21:42

I want to be there. So

21:49

was all of this this seven-year

21:52

friendship, the classes, the

21:54

training, the exotic fruit sharing,

21:56

was this all part of a plan?

21:59

Like was literally Latifah all

22:01

along recruiting Tina? Yeah,

22:03

and so now it begins to make more

22:05

sense why Latifah was so determined to learn

22:07

martial arts and to practice so hard. Like

22:10

even her interest in scuba diving kind of begins

22:12

to make more sense, because actually Latifah

22:14

had been planning this escape for years

22:16

by now. She

22:22

was in her early 30s and she'd spent her

22:24

entire adult life trying to figure out how to

22:26

get away. The idea she had

22:28

was that she would get to India or Sri Lanka

22:30

by boat and then she'd fly to the US and

22:32

seek asylum. She'd already obtained a

22:35

fake nervous passport. She thought

22:37

initially about whether she should take Shamsa, but

22:39

she decided that Shamsa was just in too

22:41

fragile a state. Do we

22:43

know if Shamsa even still wanted to escape?

22:46

Well apparently she did, because right around this

22:48

same time while Latifah and Tina were working

22:50

on their plan, Shamsa tried again

22:52

to get help. By now she was

22:54

36. It was 17

22:56

years since she'd run away and been kidnapped

22:58

in England. Somehow she got

23:01

hold of another secret phone and she

23:03

used it to call police in Cambridge,

23:05

the English city where she'd been abducted.

23:08

Wow, after all that time she

23:10

still wanted to get out. Yeah,

23:13

she still hadn't given up. But

23:15

the detective she'd talked to years earlier had

23:17

retired. And the police told

23:19

me in a statement that though they made new

23:21

lines of inquiry, they decided there wasn't enough evidence

23:24

to pursue what they called a uniquely

23:26

challenging and complex case. Latifah

23:29

wrote that soon afterwards Shamsa's rooms

23:31

were searched and her phone was

23:33

confiscated. She

23:35

was placed in a separate wing of the

23:38

residence and her sedatives were increased. So

23:45

Latifah's plan was that she would leave so that

23:47

she could get help for Shamsa from the outside

23:49

world. She was absolutely determined

23:51

that she was not going to make the same

23:54

mistakes that Shamsa had made when she tried to

23:56

escape. She was going

23:58

to make the watertight plan. This

24:00

is what she wrote at the time. I

24:03

must identify every possible single point of

24:05

failure and have a plan for every

24:08

scenario that can go awry. If

24:10

I get caught in the act, I

24:12

am not willing to submit to more

24:15

years of torture, dehumanization and hopelessness. She

24:18

wrote, and for her, it was freedom

24:20

or death. Absolutely

24:22

nothing. Nothing in between. And

24:29

Latifah already had another conspirator. Another

24:32

one? And so who is this person? So

24:35

while she was trying to figure out how to get out of

24:37

the country, Latifah had heard about a guy who'd

24:39

managed to flee Dubai himself. His

24:42

name was Évée Jauber, and he was a French-American

24:44

Marine engineer and former naval officer in

24:46

his 50s, who'd

24:49

fled Dubai to escape embezzlement charges, which he insisted

24:51

were false. He claimed to have

24:53

worked undercover in the French secret service, and he cultivated

24:55

a kind of air of mystery. He

24:58

had this shiny black hair and coarse stubble

25:00

and a heavy French accent. The

25:03

way he managed to get out was to take an inflatable

25:05

dinghy to a boat that was waiting in international

25:07

waters, and by now he was

25:09

living in Manila when Latifah managed to track him down. So

25:12

after I escaped from Dubai, I

25:15

published a book, like 10

25:18

years ago or something, and Latifah

25:20

found my book. Évée

25:23

Jauber and I talked extensively, and here he is

25:25

giving an interview to another podcast about his

25:27

role in Latifah's escape. It

25:30

was banned in Dubai. It still is

25:32

banned, but she managed to find a

25:34

book, and when she saw that, number

25:37

one, I did escape, and

25:40

number two, I was a former secret

25:42

operator, so she believed I could help

25:44

her to get out of there. Latifah

25:48

thought that Évée Jauber could help her do

25:50

something like what he'd managed to do. I

25:53

have their email correspondence, in which they'd made

25:55

plans for more than seven years before Latifah

25:57

brought Tina into what she was planning. In

26:00

that time, by Latifah's reckoning, she'd sent Erbe more

26:02

than $500,000. She

26:06

wasn't allowed to have a bank account, so she'd saved up

26:08

her pocket money in cash to give to him. Erbe

26:11

told me that any funds he'd received from Latifah

26:13

up to that point were just to cover his

26:15

expenses, but he did expect to

26:17

profit eventually. As soon as Latifah

26:19

was free, he intended to send her a

26:21

hefty bill for tens of millions of dollars

26:23

for his role in her escape. How

26:26

did she get him all that cash without her family

26:28

noticing? She managed to slip

26:30

away from her chaperone on shopping trips and pass

26:32

bundles of cash to an envoy who was sent

26:34

by Erbe. And then she put Tina and Erbe

26:36

in touch with each other. The

26:39

first problem they faced was how to get Latifah

26:41

out of Dubai. The border was

26:43

heavily guarded. So one plan

26:45

involved her swimming over the border into

26:47

Oman, the country next door, underwater.

26:50

That is a really long swim. So

26:52

she was going to do it using a

26:54

rebreather and an underwater scooter. You

26:57

have to tell me what are both

26:59

of those things. What is a rebreather? What's

27:01

an underwater scooter? Right. A rebreather

27:03

is a kind of scuba device that helps

27:05

you recycle some of the air that you

27:07

exhale while you're underwater so that you need

27:09

less supplemental oxygen and then you can go

27:11

further. And an underwater scooter is

27:13

this kind of handheld propeller that

27:16

helps to scoot you along under the water so

27:18

that you can cover a much further distance than

27:20

any human being would actually be able to swim.

27:24

This definitely seems like something out of a movie,

27:26

like some sort of way that the spies get

27:28

out of the country undetected. And I guess I

27:30

could see why Latifah was into it. Because it

27:32

sounds like you could just, instead of having to

27:34

like bob your head up above water and have

27:36

someone see, you can just stay under and just

27:39

get as far away as possible. Exactly.

27:42

And these are literally the sorts of tools that

27:44

are used in covert spy operations, which

27:46

I do think was a big part of the appeal for Latifah.

27:50

Erbe was impressed. Latifah had done a

27:52

lot of research about what he called

27:54

spy stuff, and she was genuinely

27:56

knowledgeable. He Really liked her idea

27:58

for getting to Oman underwater. If.

28:01

You cross the water under the water. It

28:03

is safe. And eight was lucky

28:05

cause I do Ya truly? Bad.

28:07

I like this idea because. It's.

28:09

Very sad news. It's undetectable.

28:12

And. Or even if somebody saw

28:14

usually just scuba diving your you

28:16

just gotta have something. The

28:19

idea with the also the underwater swim the teacher

28:22

would be met by an inflatable dinghy and then

28:24

should use that thing he. Beat have a

28:26

yacht and international waters. And

28:28

he would take the he for to India which

28:30

is nearly a thousand miles away by see. And

28:33

she would fly from there to the U and seek. Asylum.

28:36

Scene of a gun to meet up with ebay

28:38

and Manila she shuttle pass to. Him and he

28:40

also brought him a set of time and to read

28:42

that she says much cheaper. Was planning to sell when

28:44

she got to America to make some money to go

28:46

on her feet. Kinda. Started traveling

28:49

around the world to make more preparations

28:51

and assemble equipment. She went to Sri

28:53

Lanka and the Us and Singapore. And.

28:55

What kind of equipment? A C bearing. Sheeple.

28:58

A dinghy, motor and scuba gear

29:00

and Garmin Satellite navigators. and too

29:02

powerful. Underwater scooters to know me. apartment got

29:04

a full of all the stuff that she couldn't

29:06

invite people over anymore because it to say suspicious.

29:10

And then Tina enlisted another conspiracy.

29:14

Specifically schools which is.

29:18

Most of my sister services. For

29:22

treating Christian a lumber with a

29:24

friend of Tina's pieces powerfully built

29:26

French guy. He. Owned a number

29:28

of. Training. Gyms. And he's actually been teen

29:30

his own cookware of instructor. But

29:33

I caught up with him recently. He wasn't his head

29:35

in Kathy. He. Told me that Monday

29:37

when he was living in a Mon Tina came to

29:39

see him. And. She told him about

29:41

her friend the princess. What's.

29:47

Good and treats. Prisons

29:59

are cheated. him that they were planning an escape.

30:02

She explained me what

30:04

she was preparing to do. She

30:06

asked me for my help. I didn't

30:08

even think. Before even she finished, I think I said

30:10

yes. This was

30:12

an incredibly big risk for Christian. But

30:15

he said he just couldn't say no. Of

30:17

course I knew I could have been arrested. I

30:19

could be in the woods. I

30:22

knew that I was risking all the things that I had.

30:24

I put my life on the line. I knew. This

30:30

is just so remarkable to me that

30:32

you have this really

30:34

seemingly unlikely crew of conspirators

30:37

that Latifah has assembled.

30:40

It's two martial arts instructors and this

30:42

mysterious guy who fled Dubai by sea

30:44

to avoid criminal charges. But with Christian,

30:47

it just sounds like for him he

30:49

just thought, this is wrong

30:51

and so I've got to help. He's so

30:53

matter of fact about it, even though he's

30:55

about to try to do something that whole

30:58

governments have looked the other way about

31:00

to try to rescue this princess from

31:02

under the watchful eyes of her

31:04

father. Right, totally. Yeah, global governments

31:06

have singularly failed to step in and do anything

31:08

to help these imprisoned princesses. But big shout out

31:10

to the martial arts community of Dubai because it

31:13

turns out these are the people who are going

31:15

to step in. Right, exactly. They

31:17

will not tolerate this. Okay,

31:20

so Tina and Irvay come to Christian. They

31:22

have this plan to use this rebreather. What

31:25

does Christian think about that? So Christian

31:27

actually thought that that was a really terrible

31:29

idea. He just thought it was too elaborate,

31:31

like too James Bond. He was like, you

31:33

would need years of training to pull something

31:35

like that off. Latifah was really

31:37

determined to try it. But then when she practiced with

31:39

the rebreather, she got really sick and dizzy. Okay,

31:43

so Latifah is under guard the whole time. Where

31:46

in the world is she able to practice using

31:48

this like rebreather device with? So

31:50

they were actually practicing this in the

31:52

pool at her mother's palace. Okay,

31:55

so how do you explain that? Like if your

31:57

mother like peeks out into the pool and sees

31:59

you? with this weird item

32:01

trying to breathe underwater. It does

32:03

seem kind of crazy, I know, but I

32:06

think that basically by this point Latifah had

32:08

done a really good job of convincing her

32:10

family into thinking that she'd just lost all

32:12

her fighting spirit, like that they'd just broken

32:14

her will completely. And this was, you know,

32:16

this was years and years after she first

32:19

attempted to escape. And so no

32:21

one was really watching her all that closely anymore.

32:24

Like she was still under chaperone, but you

32:26

know, she was with Tina, people trusted Tina,

32:28

people thought that she wasn't going to try and pull

32:31

anything off. She

32:33

wrote, the image my guardians have of me

32:35

now is that I went through a period

32:37

of rebelliousness and insanity as a teenager. I'm

32:40

now cautious, obedient, scared of stepping out

32:42

of line because I'll go through that ordeal

32:44

again. They think I've been

32:46

broken and that they've terrified me enough not to

32:48

attempt anything like this. The

32:50

truth is, yes, I am more cautious,

32:53

but I have not been broken because

32:55

I am not afraid of death. Oh

32:58

my God. I mean, I just think,

33:03

just imagine being her for a second

33:05

in this moment and spending years

33:07

like this, trying to convince your

33:10

whole family that you're

33:12

docile, you're never going to do this. And

33:15

yet secretly continuing for all that

33:18

time. It's incredible. So

33:27

what did they decide to do then when

33:29

this rebreather doesn't work? So

33:31

Christian had another idea. He thought that they should just

33:33

keep it simple. They should just drive

33:36

Latifah over the border hidden inside the

33:38

trunk of an SUV. I

33:40

told him the suppressed thing was

33:42

to empty the compartment of

33:44

an SUV because it has a

33:46

deep tire normally. Put

33:49

some blanket or something, some cushion so

33:51

she can lay down for a certain

33:53

time. Make sure that there's

33:55

a boat put solid, put

33:58

some furniture on there. VU

34:01

Jauber thought that that plan sounded too risky.

34:04

I told Tina, if you get caught

34:06

at the border with the

34:08

daughter of the ruler fiddling the trunk

34:10

of the car, that's a bullet

34:12

in the head, right there in the desert. A

34:15

bullet to the head, right there in the desert. Right,

34:18

that was the fear, but ultimately that was the

34:20

plan they decided to go with. We'll

34:25

be right back. Before

34:33

she left, Lativa did one more thing to try

34:35

to make sure that her escape would go better

34:37

than Shamsa's had done. She

34:39

snuck over to Tina's apartment and she made a video and

34:42

she sent it to various people with instructions to release

34:44

it if she got caught. If

34:46

that happened, she wanted to make sure that everybody

34:48

knew her version of the story, and

34:50

she figured it would make it harder for her

34:52

father to quietly make her disappear, or

34:54

to kill her. If

34:57

I don't make it out alive, I'll just do the video. I

35:01

really hope I don't need this

35:03

video. She

35:07

looks kind of young and wide-eyed

35:10

in this pale blue t-shirt, with her

35:12

hair in this loose ponytail, like there are

35:14

strands falling all around her face. Pretty

35:17

soon I'm going

35:19

to be leaving

35:22

somehow, and I'm

35:26

not so sure of the outcome, but I'm

35:30

99% positive it will work. She

35:35

speaks carefully with details about who

35:37

she is, and she

35:39

makes it absolutely clear that all she wants

35:42

is to be free. I

35:46

don't know how I'll

35:49

feel, just waking up in the morning

35:52

and thinking, I can do whatever I

35:54

want today, I can go wherever I want. I

35:56

have all the choices in the world like anyone

35:59

does. Now

36:01

we'll get a new, different feeling. I'll

36:05

be amazing. The

36:12

day of the escape was set for a Saturday, in

36:14

February of 2018. That

36:16

morning, Latifah left the palace at dawn and

36:18

was driven downtown to a cafe on Sheikh

36:21

Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard to meet Tina.

36:24

By that time, the two women had spent

36:26

so much time together, with Tina teaching Latifah

36:28

Kupwira that she'd kind of come to be

36:30

seen as a chaperone in her own right by

36:32

the palace. So they were allowed to meet

36:35

up alone. Nobody would have

36:37

ever imagined we'd meet up with Tina. Because

36:41

even that morning, you know, the driver dropped

36:43

her off, and obviously they saw me

36:45

waiting outside the cafe. Nobody

36:48

could have thought that there

36:51

was any abnormal plans

36:53

for that day. You

36:55

have a really, like, kind of mischievous

36:57

kind of glowing smile when you talk

37:00

about this. That

37:02

day, Tina borrowed Christian's car. They'd

37:04

taken out the spare tyre, and now Latifah

37:06

climbed into its compartment in the tree. Tina

37:09

covered it, and then she piled blue bags full

37:12

of unbuilt IKEA furniture on top. They

37:15

set off for the border between Dubai and Oman.

37:18

They'd worked her at the signal, and Tina would

37:20

play music as she drove. And then when the

37:22

music stopped, that would mean that they were at

37:24

the border, and Latifah shouldn't make a sound. Do

37:27

you know what the music was? She told

37:29

me that it was Coldplay. Because

37:31

you're a sky full of stars.

37:34

Sky full of stars. And

37:36

what a key she is in the

37:38

heart. She

37:41

said Latifah was always teasing her about her cheesy-tasted

37:43

music. Tina told

37:45

me that she was worried Latifah wouldn't be able to

37:47

breathe in that little space with all of that stuff piled

37:49

on top of her. But they

37:51

figured that the guards wouldn't want to move all that

37:53

heavy furniture to check what was underneath, and

37:56

it felt like the best way to get her across the

37:58

border undetected. They

38:00

got to the border and

38:04

Tina pulled into the line of cars waiting to cross.

38:07

Her heart was pounding. When

38:09

it was her turn, the border guards opened all the

38:11

doors and then they opened the trunk.

38:14

Tina was so nervous she felt dizzy but

38:17

the guards didn't move the bags. They

38:19

let her drive on into Eman. Still,

38:23

it took a lot longer than Tina had hoped to

38:25

get through the border. When she

38:27

finally was able to pull over and open the

38:29

trunk, she was terrified that she was going to

38:31

find her friend. But the

38:33

teeth had jumped out full of excitement. She

38:36

got into the passenger seat and they snapped a

38:38

selfie. Oh,

38:41

this looks like just a road trip, like

38:43

two girls on an exciting road trip. Right,

38:45

it kind of has Selma and Louise vibes. Yeah,

38:48

two girls in a car with sunglasses and

38:50

Tina has this kind of almost like a

38:52

little smirk on her face. But

38:55

Latifah has this huge smile. Yeah,

38:57

Latifah is just grinning all over and Tina has

38:59

this kind of impish grin like she's really

39:02

proud of herself for pulling this off. So

39:05

they met up with Christian at his flat in

39:07

Eman. He tried to play host and offered

39:09

them food but they were just too nervous. They

39:12

were starting to talk about some

39:15

of the possibilities of things going wrong. And

39:17

I was just like, well, things can go wrong.

39:19

But for now, everything is still

39:21

okay. No one is you know, so relax.

39:24

You guys done your part. I've done my

39:26

part. Everything is ready downstairs. He

39:29

already had the dinghy all inflated and ready to go

39:31

on a trailer. And he piled some fishing gear on

39:33

board to make it look like they were just on an ordinary outing.

39:36

And they packed small backpacks with cash and

39:38

Latifah's fake passport and her laptop and a

39:41

few spare clothes. They

39:43

had Garmin satellite navigators so Erbe could

39:45

track their location and send them GPS

39:47

coordinates so that they could see where the boat was waiting

39:49

for them. It was about 16 miles

39:52

offshore in international waters. They

39:54

drove down to the ocean. But when they

39:56

got there, the sea was really rough, like

39:58

a storm was coming. and fishermen were

40:01

running up the beach saying to Christian, don't go

40:03

out in that, it's too risky. The

40:05

sea was rough. I've been

40:07

sailing sometimes, I've been, you know, driving

40:09

boats and playing and having fun. But

40:12

I've never seen the sea so

40:14

rough. But I knew I

40:16

couldn't go back and

40:19

it was impossible to say, you

40:21

know, OK, well, let's change the plan.

40:23

And as frightened as everyone were, the

40:26

only option was to go through it.

40:34

They jumped in and Christian steered

40:36

the boat out into these churning

40:38

waves. And it was just lurching

40:40

around. Like he said it was almost as if the

40:42

boat was standing on end. These waves were so steep.

40:45

He told the people to lean on the front of the

40:47

boat to try to help keep their nose down. But the

40:49

sea just kept pushing them back. And he said the engine

40:52

wasn't strong enough. So the going was really slow. That

40:54

was like a nightmare. Many

40:57

times I thought the boat is just going to flip

40:59

one of the waves, it's going to put everyone down.

41:02

Like if I was

41:04

frightened. So

41:08

the people were just clinging to the side of the

41:10

boat as it pitched on the waves and it was

41:12

taking on water. And Tina was still trying

41:15

to send satellite coordinates to Airevé so he could

41:17

see where they were. They traveled

41:19

miles out into the ocean, but they

41:21

were going so slowly. They were running late. And

41:23

so the crew from the yacht eventually came out to pick

41:25

them up on jet skis. I was

41:28

seeing one jet ski, then two. When

41:30

the jet skis reached the boat, Tina and

41:32

Latifah tried to clamber on board, but they fell in

41:34

the water and all of their clothes and possessions got

41:36

soaked through. Eventually, they managed

41:39

to clamber on and they said goodbye to

41:41

Christian. Yeah, that moment I

41:43

was just thinking of making a pass. We

41:47

just said, OK, we'll talk later, we'll

41:49

keep in touch. Christian

41:52

waved them goodbye as they zoomed away. The

41:54

jet skis took them to Airevé's yacht, which was

41:57

called Nostromo. They climbed on

41:59

board. And now they

42:01

were in international waters. Only US

42:03

flagged both. The

42:06

teacher was free. Christian

42:17

motored the dinghy back to shore. Then

42:20

he took his girlfriend out for a celebratory

42:22

seafood dinner and he called

42:24

his sister in Europe to tell her he was

42:27

coming home to see her. He needed

42:29

to get out of Eman. He

42:45

might be in a lot of trouble. Yes.

42:48

Just before he was scheduled to get on

42:51

the plane, he was driving in his car

42:53

and suddenly he was blocked on all sides

42:55

by police. He remembers

42:57

dozens of guns pointing at him. The

43:01

officers took him to the solitary wing of

43:03

an Omani jail. And

43:06

soon officials arrived to

43:08

interrogate him. They

43:10

wanted to know when

43:12

he's the princess. That's

43:21

next on the runaway princess. The

43:42

runaway princesses was written and produced by

43:44

Catherine Winter and Heidi Blake. It

43:47

was edited by Samara Fremark, Willing

43:49

Davidson and me Madeline Barron. Sound

43:52

designed by Chris Julin and Samara Fremark

43:55

with original music by Chris Julin. Our

43:57

art is by Malika Favors. Additional editing

44:00

in production by Natalie Dublansky, fact

44:02

checking by Elan Warner and Theresa Matthew.

44:05

Third Direction by Aviva Michaloff, legal

44:08

review by Fabio Bertoni and Kimesha

44:10

Laurie. Our managing editor

44:13

is Julia Rothschild. The

44:15

head of global audio for Conde Nast is Chris

44:17

Bannon. The editor of The New Yorker

44:19

is David Remnick. The

44:27

third episode of The Runaway Princesses will be

44:30

released in the In the Dark feed soon,

44:32

so stay subscribed to make sure you don't miss it. But

44:34

if you want to listen to the last two episodes right

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44:50

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45:01

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