In Focus: Women Targeted by Transnational Repression Women who live in countries where government’s restrict their rights may become targets of transnational repression if they attempt to flee their families or their government’s restrictive laws. While it is often families who target women relatives who have fled abroad, in cases where they do so with the support of government authorities, it is transnational repression. Saudi Arabia When Saudi women flee abusive families, they are breaking the rules of a strict male guardianship system, which denies women the ability to make certain decisions about their lives. Human Rights Watch has documented cases whereby the families of fleeing women, with the support of the Saudi authorities, target these women abroad and attempt to bring them back. On April 9, 2017, Dina Ali Lasloom attempted to flee her Saudi family and go to Australia. While transiting in Manila, the Philippines, she was prevented from boarding her flight to Australia. Lasloom posted a video from the airport saying, “They took my passport and locked me up for 13 hours… if my family comes, they will kill me.” The details around this case were largely hidden, but Human Rights Watch obtained information from a number of sources. An airline security official told Human Rights Watch that he saw two airline security officials and two men carry her with duct tape on her mouth, feet, and hands from the hotel where she was being held. Reuters reported that several passengers on the Saudi Arabian Airlines (now known as Saudia) flight to Riyadh said they saw a screaming woman being carried onto the plane. Human Rights Watch was later able to confirm that the two men were Lasloom’s uncles. On the following day, April 12, the Saudi Embassy in the Philippines posted a statement saying that Dina had returned to Saudi Arabia and that the case was a “family affair.” In contradiction to this, Bloomberg reported that a government official stated that Lasloom was being held without charge under protective custody in a detention facility for women under 30 years old, pointing to the involvement of Saudi authorities in this case. In January 2019, Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun attempted to flee her family in Saudi Arabia by traveling to Australia. During a connection in Thailand, she was stopped by Thai authorities and detained to be returned to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi embassy official took her “WE WILL FIND YOU” 20