Bahrain: Sheikha Meriam Al-Khalifa

[La la]

Anyone who knows what happened to Sheikha Mariam al-Khalifa from Bahrain who went back to her country after her marriage to an American soldier had soured? She was making a big deal about that she could be killed if she went back. I have not been able to find any articles about her after that.

[Layla]

I just heard that she been pardoned by the king.

[La la]

Good for her! So she wont go back to her husband or ex husband now.

[Layla]

No idea. Did they separate because they had to, or because she wanted to?

[madonna23]

They separated because she wanted her husband (the American) to find a job and work while he wanted to go to school. (He couldn't join the Army because he had been dismissed due to marriage). I read this a while ago in a article...

Did you guys see the movie?

[Layla]

Thanks madonna. No I didn't see the movie but have heard about it. Anyway, I think it was a mismatch from the beginning and it was bound to fail. Sad....

[La la]

No, unfortunately not yet. I heard it was a good one.

There was a Muslimah here in Sweden who fell in love with a Swedish guy, a classmate of hers. Since her parents would never give their consent to the marriage they sneaked around but one day her relatives saw her with this guy. Things got worse when her mother found out that she was not a virgin anymore. She was severely assaulted by her brother and father several times.

The boys grandma and uncle even asked her parents for her hand but the father refused. Her boy-friend died in a car accident after she had ran away from home to live with him. She was without address and identity, and one day when she visited her sick sister her father found out she was in town and went there and shot her although she and the others begged him not to. Honour killings have been highlighted ever since and there have occured many incidents similar to the one I mentioned but God was with Sheikha Mariam! I wish her the best in life!

[Layla]

Woaaa.... this sounds like one of those movies. I can't believe these things really happen. I mean I hear about such things in the news etc. but to get it first hand from someone you know is incredible.

A Muslimah can not get married to a non-Muslim...true. I don't know if you know or not, it's because her children will then not become Muslims etc. etc. All it would have taken from the guy was to become a Muslim, by verbally declaring that there is no God but God and Mohammed is the Messenger of God. In that case, they might have been able to get married.

As to honour killings.... I am speechless. Sadly, this tribal ritual is attributed to Islam. Needless to say that it has nothing to do with it at all. Even in cases of adultery, there are so many difficult prerequisites set to declare someone has committed adultery, that it is next to impossible to do so.....

I know so many Muslimahs who have married Westerners. The guys just converted (even if on the face only) and the two got married normally. I even heard a story from my Emirati friends that an already engaged Emirati girl fell in love with a Dutch guy. She broke off her engagement, and married the Dutchman instead. Her family was against it initially but once they saw how happy they were, they gave in. They now live in Holland.

[La la]

It is very unfortunate! The thing is that this guy was willing to convert to Islam but her parents were dead against their marriage. I suppose it meant a lot to them that she married a guy not only their own religion but also an Arab preferably from the same country.

[Bubbette]

Originally posted by La la@May 11th, 2004 - 6:31 pm
No, unfortunately not yet. I heard it was a good one.

There was a Muslimah here in Sweden who fell in love with a Swedish guy, a classmate of hers. Since her parents would never give their consent to the marriage they sneaked around but one day her relatives saw her with this guy. Things got worse when her mother found out that she was not a virgin anymore. She was severely assaulted by her brother and father several times.

The boys grandma and uncle even asked her parents for her hand but the father refused. Her boy-friend died in a car accident after she had ran away from home to live with him. She was without address and identity, and one day when she visited her sick sister her father found out she was in town and went there and shot her although she and the others begged him not to. Honour killings have been highlighted ever since and there have occured many incidents similar to the one I mentioned but God was with Sheikha Mariam! I wish her the best in life!

Now, was he tried and convicted and appropriately punished?

[bluetortuga]

Has Sheikha Mariam been seen publicly in Bahrain since her return? Maybe she has been privately liquidated and the Royal Family is covering it all up. I don't see how she could marry into any other arisotcratic Bahraini family after causing such a "scandal". No Bahraini prince would marry her because most of them want virgin brides; and even if there was prince who was interested her bride price would a bargain because she's tarnished from this conservative society's point of view. If she's still alive, her best bets are looking for another foreigner.

[Wisnu]

Hello Layla,

Do you believe honour killing is a way of Islam ?

[sommone]

I remember seeing princess mariam on Oprah. That is where I first saw her story. I didn't know about the movie, nor did I know of her divorce. Personally, I think those honor killings are horrible. If a family has been shamed, don't murder someone...kick them out. Not that I approve of kicking someone out because of a mistake, we all make them, but don't kill someone. I reading in the Jordan Times where several women have been murdered because they supposedly "shamed the family". It is just a little too extreme for me.

[Layla]

Wisnu, absolutely not! If you read my post, I am actually pointing out that it has NOTHING to do with Islam. Honour killings are tribal rituals (for lack of a better word).

I think she still can get married to someone else...maybe not a prince, but there are many other "aristocratic: families who do marry the "left-overs" of the royal families (excuse the term, I am merely being sarcastic). In the UAE, I have attended weddings of illegitimate children of some Sheikhs with very influential families.

Honour killings.... I don't believe this is prevalent in the Gulf countries. Most probably Sheikha Mariam is in the palace. The sheikhs do not usually kill their own (at least I have not heard of it).

La la: the more I thought about your friend, the sicker I got. From my knowledge, usually these things are committed by the lower class/less educated people. I would have liked to ask the father why he had moved to Sweden with that mentality? It makes me angry....

Bubbette @ May 12th, 2004 - 3:25 am
Now, was he tried and convicted and appropriately punished?

I hope he was and SEVERELY!!!!

[La la]

Yes, both her parents were illiterate persons (if it helps). But I reckon they had to go to school after coming to Sweden. I remember that her parents hid her enrolment letter she received from the University because they did not want her to pursue higher studies.

Punishments are light in Sweden. I don't know what he was sentenced to. But I know he is in jail now and has been for the last 2 years. Some said that the judiciary should consider that they have another mentality and belong to another culture. He shot her three times and showed no sign of repentence during the judiciary proceedings. He said he did what he had to do.

She was buried next to her boy-friend.

[Layla]

La la, I assume they just attended swedish language courses in Sweden (if at all).

This is such an unfortunate story, it breaks my heart.

Back to Sheikha Mariam.... I doubt very much anything "bad" will happen to her in Bahrain. The Bahrainis are generally very different than the rest of the Gulf people. They are not as conservative and definitely not as tribal. They come from an older civilisation and have become more cosmopolitan due to their interaction with other nations through trade etc. They are very educated and hard working (they were attending universities in cairo, Beirut and Baghdad as early as the 1930's). You even meet guys with Masters degrees at gas stations working as attendants... Likewise, their Sheikhs are most (if not all) university (and respectable universities) educated. Their princesses come out in public, work with the mass, rarely refer to themselves as Sheikhas (they use their first names without the title) and are not forcibly covered (it's their choice). After this long lecture, what I am trying to say is that I doubt the Sheikha will be mis-treated if she has been granted a royal pardon.

[Gita]

What is Sheikha Mariam doing with her life at the moment? Has she gone back to her University studies that she left behind when she went to the USA?

[Lalla Meriem]

Meriem Johnson (she wasn't called Sheika anymore after her marriage) divorced her husband and returned to her family. The main reason was that he could not keep her in the style to which she was accustomed. He actually wasn't discharged from the Army he was merely demoted to Pfc, though, his career was finished. They were living at a base at the time of their divorce.

[sommone]

Well I'm sure she had to have known that when she married him that on a military salary, he wouldn't be able to keep her in the style to which she was accustomed. If I remember correctly when she appeared on Oprah, she claimed to have loved the man, and her parents forbid her from seeing him. I think that was down right silly to divorce him for that, but then it was down right silly to marry him knowing that he wouldn't be able to provide what she deemed properly for her. I imagine Oprah would have a field day if she was to do an update show on her.

[kcc]

does anyone have any info on this bahraini princess. she ran away with an american soldier a few years ago. i think she is divorced now. a movie was made about her life. thanks