A gripping memoir of bravery and sacrifice by a young woman whose escape from her abusive family and an oppressive culture in Saudi Arabia captivated the world
In early 2019, after three years of careful planning, Rahaf Mohammed finally escaped her abusive family in Saudi Arabia―but made it only to Bangkok before being stripped of her passport. If forced to return home, she was sure she would be killed, like other rebel women in her country. As men pounded at the door of her barricaded hotel room, she opened a Twitter account. The teenager reached out to the world, and the world answered―she gained 45,000 followers in one day, and those followers helped her seek asylum in the West.
Now Rahaf Mohammed tells her remarkable story in her own words, revealing untold truths about life in the closed kingdom, where young women are brought up in a repressive system that puts them under the legal control of a male guardian. Raised with immense financial privilege but under the control of her male relatives―including her high-profile politician father―she endured an abusive childhood in which oppression and deceit were the norm.
Moving from Rahaf’s early days on the underground online network of Saudi runaways, who use coded entries to learn how to flee the brutalities of their homeland, to her solo escape to Canada, Rebel is a breathtaking and life-affirming memoir about one woman’s tenacious pursuit of freedom.
This raw and unflinching account is more than a story of escape—it’s a testament to survival against impossible odds.
- Escape from Abuse: The harrowing, meticulously planned flight from a high-profile, abusive family in Saudi Arabia, where disobedience can mean death.
- The Male Guardianship System: A visceral, firsthand look at life in the closed kingdom, where every woman is under the legal control of a male relative—from her finances to her freedom of movement.
- A Twenty-First-Century SOS: How a single Twitter account, opened in a barricaded Bangkok hotel room, became a lifeline, rallying 45,000 followers in one day to challenge a government and save a life.
- The Fight for Asylum: The gripping real-time story of being stripped of a passport, facing deportation, and navigating international bureaucracy to find a safe haven and a new life in Canada.
RAHAF MOHAMMED was eighteen years old when she dramatically escaped from Saudi Arabia, capturing world-wide attention through her Twitter account. The daughter of a politician, Rahaf was raised according to an oppressive interpretation of Islam, where women and girls are given virtually no freedom. Thanks to a public plea for her life made on social media, Rahaf was eventually granted asylum in Canada, where she still lives, advocating for the freedom and empowerment of women.
