Ex-wife of Dubai sheikh begs for help: ‘We are hostages in our home’

The ex-wife of a Dubai sheikh has made a video plea for help, claiming she is being harassed by authorities over a custody battle with her former husband.

Mother-of-three Zeynab Javadli, 31, was married to Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum between 2015 and 2019.   

In a video shared with BBC News. Ms Javadli pleaded: ‘Please help me,’ continuing, ‘My children and I are terrified and frightened for our lives and safety.’

She has also made a request to the UN Human Rights Council claiming she has been subjected to ‘abuse, harassment and intimidation,’ the BBC said. 

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Ms Javadli (pictured with her daughters) says she fears for the safety of her children

The clip comes after a series of videos were shared by Ms Javadli in 2020 on Instagram, in which she also pleaded for help after it appeared her home was being raided by Dubai authorities.

In one of the 2020 videos, the mother-of-three says: ‘I can’t give my children up to strangers. This is how they are dealing with me. There’s no law,’ while one of her young daughters is heard saying in the background ‘You can’t take us anywhere.’

The incident is referred to in her case to the UN, with lawyers for Ms Javadli saying her children and parents were assaulted when Dubai police officers entered her home without permission.

Ms Javadli’s UK-based lawyers say that her freedom of movement has been restricted, and that the past three years have seen unannounced police raids carried out on her Dubai home.

Sheikh Saeed and Ms Javadli have been engaged in a custody battle since the pair split in 2019, with the sheikh’s lawyers arguing Ms Javadli is an unfit mother – a claim she denies.

Zeynab Javadli has remained in Dubai since her divorce, fearing that she may never see her children again if she leaves the country

The former champion gymnast has chosen to remain in Dubai since divorcing the sheikh in 2019 instead of returning to her native Azerbaijan, in fear of being blocked from reentering the country and not being able to see her daughters again.

Her worry of losing her children is so strong that she is even choosing not to send them to school, instead keeping them indoors in case they are taken from her by authorities.

Ms Javadli’s case is one of a few in Dubai’s ruling family. In 2019, Princess Haya, another former wife of a sheikh who ended up embroiled in a custody battle, fled Dubai with the pair’s two children to start a new life in the UK.

And in 2018, Princess Latifa, another ex-wife of a Dubai sheikh, says the yacht she was using to flee the country was intercepted by speedboats containing armed Special Forces guards. 

She claims the guards then used smoke grenades to decapitate the yacht’s crew before tranquillising her and returning her to Dubai, where she said she was ‘held captive’ in undercover videos. The princess has since reappeared in public, saying she is ‘living as she wishes’.

Princess Haya attends Queen Elizabeth’s committal service at Windsor Castle on September 19