Teenage girl in escape drama says activists incited her to flee to Georgia

DAMMAM — A teenage girl who had fled to Georgia has come back to the Kingdom and is suing a number of Saudi women activists for inciting her to escape, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Monday. A source said the teenager previously claimed through her Twitter account that she was abused by her family and that led her to escape. “The young woman escaped from her family when they were visiting Turkey last July. She had previously claimed that her family members had abused her and her little brother. The young woman is now claiming that a group of women had incited her to escape,” said the source. The source said the Saudi Embassy in Azerbaijan had located the young woman and contacted her family. The embassy said she decided to return to the Kingdom after she failed to get asylum in Azerbaijan. The embassy did not say whether she returned alone or with her family. The embassy said the issue was an internal family matter and it would not release any more information. The embassy however confirmed that the young woman’s escape had no political or security connection. "It was simply a family matter," it said. The teenager was active on Twitter while she was absconding and threatened to release videos of abuse she endured in the family if they did not stop the search for her. She also supported the hashtag to revoke the guardianship system. She later claimed that a number of women, including a Saudi academic, had incited her and helped her escape. The source also said a number of activists on Twitter have deactivated their accounts after they have fervently supported the young woman.