‘DIRE CIRCUMSTANCES’

California Woman Detained in Saudi Arabia After Twitter Post

Carly Morris said she’d been trying to take her daughter out of the kingdom since 2019.

An American woman has been detained in Saudi Arabia after she posted on Twitter to say she’d been trapped there since 2019. California native Carly Morris, 34, told relatives three years ago that she was taking her 8-year-old daughter to Saudi Arabia for a short stay so that her child could meet her paternal grandfather. Once there, Morris became stuck in a years-long battle to take her child back out of the kingdom against the wishes of her Saudi ex-husband. Draconian male guardianship laws in the country have hampered her efforts to leave. On Tuesday, the State Department confirmed Morris’ detention. Her arrest came after she was summoned to a public prosecutor’s office Sunday over an allegation of “destabilizing public order.” The summons followed a statement posted by Morris on Twitter warning other women and children to stay away from Saudi Arabia, saying she and her daughter had been kept “against our will” in a hotel in “extreme and direct circumstances” since 2019.