Granted asylum in Canada, Saudi teen ‘happy to be in her new home’ By Kenyon Wallace

Filed under: All News,more news,Opinion,RECENT POSTS,Somali news |
Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, the Saudi teen who locked herself in a Bangkok hotel room and used Twitter to plead for asylum, is welcomed in Toronto by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland on Saturday.
Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, the Saudi teen who locked herself in a Bangkok hotel room and used Twitter to plead for asylum, is welcomed in Toronto by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland on Saturday.  (RICK MADONIK / TORONTO STAR)

But after that high-profile welcome, Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun now faces the challenges encountered by any refugee: finding warm clothes, looking for a place to live, obtaining ID and a bank account. Alqunun must also adjust to a society far different from the one she fled.

“The oppression of women is not a problem that can be resolved in a day. But rather than cursing the darkness, we really believe — I believe — in lighting a single candle,” Freeland said. “And where we can save a single person, where we can save a single woman, that’s a good thing to do.”

The 18-year-old Alqunun attracted international attention last week after sharing on Twitter how she escaped her allegedly abusive family by fleeing to Bangkok during a visit to Kuwait. When Thai officials confiscated her passport, Alqunun barricaded herself in an airport hotel room with a table and a mattress and launched her social media appeal for help.