Sheikha Latifa

I go inside this living room area and I'm waiting. And then my father comes and he says, we'll wait for Shamsa to come.

And then Shamsa comes and she hugs me. And she kept apologizing to me. And she, it was so weird. She's now like super friendly with our father. She loves him. She absolutely loves him. Shamsa was whispering to me like, be respectful of your father. You know, just be careful, be respectful of him.

And she said to me, I'm so sorry because I think I confused you because I wanted to escape, but then I'm happier, but I don't really know what I want. So I think you were just defending me. I said, Shamsa, I want a person for you. I went to prison for you. I almost died when I was a kid. And I said, Shamsa, like for the next 10 seconds, I don't care if you're scared.

I don't care what's going on in your head. But for the next 10 seconds, be completely honest with me. What do you want in your life? Tell me what you want so I can help you. And she said, to be honest with you, I'm happy where I am. I just want to be left alone. You know, the house is beautiful. And I just want to be left in peace to worship and to pray.

Campsite Media.

I'm a hostage.

Every day I am worried about my safety and my life. The police threatened me that I'll never see the sun again.

I introduced Mary, never said that she was a former UN head of human rights, never. If I knew that, of course, like I would have said everything, but... No, she never told me that we were eating and everything. And then, hey, she said to me, oh, this is such a nice lunch. I want to remember it. Will you all come into the living room to take a picture?

And I kept saying to her, I don't really want to. I don't really want to. Like, I was being polite. I wasn't saying in front of them, hey, I'm a hostage. I was at the camera and my face was like, you know, like this, not smiling or anything. It was all a setup. It was like they tricked me.

When she left, it was a little bit hard. I was happy for her, but at the same time I was worried about her. She escaped because she didn't have much freedom in Dubai, like driving a car or traveling or, you know, just making choices for your own future.

They released the story to The Guardian. Google Shams al-Maktoum and it's the first things that come up.

So I decided I'm going to escape. I'm going to go to Oman. Oman's about two hours east of Dubai. I'm going to just go there and I'm going to find a lawyer or something and I'm going to help Shamsa. In the worst case scenario, if they catch me, they're going to put me with her. She has her sister with her, so she's not going to do anything, you know?

They caught me at the border. I was very, very naive. I thought you could just go. I didn't have the internet to research it. I didn't have anyone to talk to, to give me advice. I was totally by myself. Latifa says she was immediately brought back home. My father's right-hand man put me in prison under my father's orders.

I think the first time they tortured me, I didn't feel any pain because I was in so much shock. It was like somebody was hitting me through a pillow or something.

They told me that your father told us to beat you until we kill you. I didn't know when one day ended and the next began. And then they would come in the middle of the night, pull me out of bed to beat me. After the torture sessions, I couldn't even walk. So I would crawl to the bathroom to open a tap to get some water.

I think in the last few months, they gave me a toothbrush, just one toothbrush. Towards the end, they gave me Tide. So I would use the clothing washing powder on my skin to try to stay clean.

Everything was just a shock to me. I remember the car felt like it was going so fast because I had not moved for one year and one month. I went home having all these people talking normally to me. Normal, normal after what I've been through. I don't know what normal is anymore.

I mean, it's something that really changes you, you know? Makes you lose trust in people.

At first, I just thought it was a hoax. If you are watching this video, either I'm dead or I'm in a very, very, very bad situation.

All my father cares about is his reputation. He will kill people. They don't care. Especially if you're a female, your life is so disposable. They don't care. He's the most evil person I've ever met in my life. He's pure evil.

Hello, my name is Latifa Al Maktoum. I was born on December 5, 1985. My father is the Prime Minister of UAE. He has three daughters called Latifa. I'm the middle one.

I wasn't allowed to go outside. Like, I was going to school. I would sometimes go to the family's stables to horse ride. And apart from that, I didn't do anything else. I've been asking a lot just to go traveling, to study, to do anything normal. They don't let me. Freedom of choice is not something that, you know, we have. So when you have it, you take it for granted.

And if you don't have it, it's very, very special.