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Ex-Wife of Dubai Sheikh Pleads for Help: ‘My Children and I Are Terrified’

Zeynab Javadli appealed for the UN to step in after she said Dubai authorities threatened and harassed her over a child custody battle.

Zeynab Javadli, the ex-wife of a United Arab Emirates royal, had requested help from the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to help her retrieve her children. Javadli claimed that UAE authorities had threatened and harassed her throughout a grueling custody battle with her ex-husband, Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum. “Please help me,” Javadli said in a video obtained by the BBC. “My children and I are terrified and frightened for our lives and safety.” Javadli, an international gymnast, has been accused by Sheikh Saeed of being an unfit mother who fails to send her children to school, which she denies. She has been trapped in Dubai since 2019, when the pair divorced after a four-year marriage. “We are effectively homeless and trapped in a hotel in Dubai, with my children unable to leave without fear that I might be arrested and have my children taken from me,” Javadli said.