Saudis detain American woman seeking to leave with daughter
Saudi Arabia has taken into custody an American woman who has struggled for years to leave the kingdom with her daughter
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Saudi Arabia has taken into custody an American woman who has been locked in a yearslong struggle to take her young daughter back out of the kingdom over the objections of her Saudi ex-husband, according to U.S. officials and a U.S.-based advocacy group Tuesday.
Carly Morris was summoned to a police station in the north-central city of Buraidah on Monday, and has yet to be released by Saudi authorities, according to the Washington-based Freedom Initiative. The group advocates for people it believes wrongfully detained in the Middle East.
U.S. officials said Saudi authorities had confirmed the detention of Morris, whose efforts to leave the kingdom with her now 8-year-old daughter have been made more difficult by Saudi Arabia's strict male guardianship laws. Morris in recent months had spoken to reporters and tweeted about her circumstances.
“Our embassy in Riyadh is very engaged on this case, and they’re following the situation very closely,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington on Tuesday.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman increasingly has been including U.S. citizens and Western-based Saudis in a general crackdown on those the government sees as rivals or critics.
In August, a Saudi court gave a 16-year prison sentence to a 72-year-old Saudi-American, Saad al Madi, for critical tweets he had posted over the years from his home in Florida.
Morris had traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2019 for what was intended to be a short stay to allow her daughter, also an American citizen, to meet the family of the Saudi father, said Bethany Al-Haidari, Freedom Initiative's Saudi Arabia case manager.
Saudi Arabia's code of male guardianship served to keep the daughter in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia allegedly placed Morris herself under one of its widely imposed travel bans, barring her from leaving the country.
Morris recently tweeted warnings to other women with children abroad about Saudi Arabia, al Haidari said.
President Joe Biden had vowed as a candidate to isolate Prince Mohammed, the kingdom's de facto ruler, over rights abuses. The Biden administration hopes now to persuade the kingdom to pump more oil for the global market, and has worked to close the rift between the two strategic partners.
The American woman's detention was “yet another sign” that Saudi Arabia simply does not value the U.S. as an ally, said Allison McManus, the Freedom Initiative’s Director of Research.