Only eleven days after the new year celebration around the world in 2019, a girl from Saudi “escaped” from her family. She locked herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room since the Thailand government “confiscated her passport and were holding her Sunday…”, according to the CTV news published on January 6 by Grant Peck and Aya Batrawy. This news drew attention from the public all around the world since fleeing means a violation of a series of laws in Saudi. It is about life and death. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, the ran away girl, claimed that her male relatives tried to force her to marry and to stay in the room by beating her, using death threats, and cutting her hair. Then, she turned to requesting asylum in Canada by claiming her male relative abused her and punish her for no reason. Rahaf provided her copy of her passport and name to provide proof of her existence at the beginning of the runaway. She then got asylum from Canada and became a refugee living in Canada. But how does the world deal with this girl?
In the article published by CTV news from Canada, besides Rahaf’s case, two paragraphs include a former woman who tried to escape from Saudi Arabia who failed and “was not publicly hear from again”, which amplifies the horrible situation that women are suffering in Saudi Arabia. The news by Peck and Batrawy also took a period of the interview, which stress on “fear of repercussion”, exposing some inhuman places which will return the refugee women to home or Saudi Arabia will be let in involve this case as its’ laws. This shows a denouncement from a “civilized” country that is objected to the “rude” and illiberal civilization. From a former fugitive to Rahaf, the crude situation was never changed. CTV news could be concluded as the news which draws the historiography of a superior culture in western countries, blaming the inhumane actions that would happen to Saudi Arabia women.
Rahaf’s action was encouraged by Washington Examiner in their newspaper on January 12th, which was called “Brave new Canadian”. In the passage, the associated press states that her action highlighted women's rights and their situation in Saudi Arabia since this is not the first case in which “…women fleeing abuse by their families have been caught trying to seek asylum aboard in recent years and returned home.” It draws the picture of Canada supports the human right throughout the world, encouraging the fleeing actions in Saudi Arabia which were accused by having no women rights and crude. By implying the unfairness of women's rights and the disrespect of basic people living conditions in Saudi, the Washington Examiner probably would like to reveal impartiality, urging Saudi Arabia to give back women’s rights like western countries did.
This news from America and Canada stated their point on the attention of human rights, which is considered moral and lenient compared with the central Asia countries. By including sentences like “Several other countries, including Australia, had been in talks with the U.N.’s refugee agency to accept Alqunun”, countries were trying to assert their benevolence and kindness to the world. However, on the other side, this news is lack evidence since the girl did not provide any evidence of how her relatives abused her and used the death threat. Instead, she used Twitter to reveal her life, making people consider whether it is true. Also, considering the women's rights in Saudi Arabia, if there are so many persecutions happening here, why Rahaf’s case drew so much attention?
On the other side, the newspaper which shows the strong moral and justice idea according to this news made historiography that their country is superior to Saudi Arabia and its’ related countries in central Arabia. Apparently, they have biases on the human right since they think helping the girl is the right choice that could help her out from her horrible life but none of them consider interviewing Rahaf’s family and collecting the evidence to prove her right.
Thailand newspaper, the Bangkok Post published an article also on January 6th, pointing out some additional information from an immigration chief from Thailand about how Rahaf is lack “further documents” like ticket and money and considered her case as a family problem which would lead to sending back Rahaf on Monday morning. By claiming Rahaf “appealed for help from Western countries willing to help her,” Bangkok Post urges that this girl have no relationship with Thailand's authority and the only reason she had been caught was lacking further documents; her case is just the little problem between her and her family, we can solve it by sending her back. Thus, we could conduct that the Thailand government has an extremely neutral standpoint on Rahaf’s case which means it tackles this problem in an even-hand manner. In the passage, we could see that there are no moral or benevolence words but just analyzed the restriction rules and arbitrary situation that happened in Saudi Arabia. Different from the news published by CTV and Washington Examiner, Bangkok's post remains the tone of fairness, like the spectator of a football game who waiting for the teams’ changing tendencies. By including the evidence of restriction in Saudi Arabia, Bangkok Post stands on both sides of the standpoints of Western countries and Central Asia: confirming the runaway is true and not using excessive fustigation simultaneously.
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In another passage from Erem News, by Riyadh from Abu Dhabi, declared that “Rahaf Mohammed, has announced that she is abandoning her Islamic faith and turning to atheism won international acclaim and received the sympathy of international human rights organizations, has responded to widespread calls for intervention…” The totally different tone from western countries, which believed Rahaf is a defector who betrayed her faith and homeland. The news emphasized that Rahaf became a civilian who seeks refuge from enemy countries that discredit their ethnic. By affecting by historiography, people who read this news are deeply impressed by the unethical conduct and the shame. In the fact, Central Asia has the largest population of Islam faith which allow them to participate in everything daily with their belief, they also have high social honorary and esteem. A girl like Rahaf will be blamed if she made a huge mistake, bringing shame to her nation. People would no longer accept a former resident who accused the whole nation of abusing and depriving right from women.
According to the news from western, well-developed countries, there would be more places for publicizing human rights, enlightened ideas, and welfare for citizens. Also, they would intensify the seriousness of losing human rights in Saudi Arabia, which sets an example of caring, and humanism. The greater image they establish, the more inhumane actions originated from Saudi Arabia. The distinguishing comparison tells that women have a tough life in Saudi. Enhancing the international standing and strengthening the indispensable tie with human rights, CTV news and Washington Examiner achieve their goal of declaring justice around the world. What they expect to see is a bias that will lead to allegations toward countries like Saudi.
Observing from the opposite angle, Thailand is a country that has the right to repatriate refugees to their native country. In Rahaf’s case, Thailand plays a neutral part which persists in its own law. Many roles join this case after it happened: the UNHCR, the Thailand diplomatic official, and the embassy of Saudi Arabia. As the place where the incident happened, Thailand insists to publish the fact without bias, reviving the truth from multiple resources.
Observing a tone of contempt in Erem news’ passage, I believe that no one would tolerate a traitor who betrayed one’s country, family, and faith. On the one hand, the news demanded Thailand government deport Rahaf as a Saudi requirement, supporting the idea that traitors should be punished. On the other hand, emphasizing that Rahaf got the sympathy all around the world embodies that Rahaf’s action is unworthy of getting any sympathy since she is indiscreet in her conduct: traveling without a male guardian (husband or father), demanding help from an enemy country and abandoning her faith by seeking patronage. The way Erem news uses faith comes first, which is totally different from other countries. What is more, I believe that why this become different is the different pattern of culture: Wester countries advocate democracy and equal rights among humans, but Islam countries follow their faith to stay organized, being systematical by adhering to a belief.
From the above articles, we could learn a few things about historiography, bias, and how to run a media. First, historiography is defined as learning the history of writing history. When we publish an article like Rahaf’s case which have special meaning to human history, we have to be aware of publishing bias which could establish misunderstanding and blind faith about a race or a region. I believe that the news with bias may contain deliberately distort content toward the enemies, their countries, and their unique culture which is not expected by well-developed countries. In the class, I have learned so many cases of historiography in history which contains unreliable opinion but are widely believed by folks. By understanding the reason why these cases were known to all, I think, to avoid the bad perspective toward certain regions or races, people should stop publishing the article with historiography. Second, bias is a terrible idea that could be seen almost everywhere. We all have biases that could allow us to distinguish people: from good guys to bad guys, from beautiful to ugly, and from good quality to bad quality. People have their own rules to catalog things as they want which produces bias. Just as Hamlet says, “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes.” I consider that people are individuals which live separately, we have the right to produce conflicts and solve them since we are all different. We should not blame others just because they have different faith and lives from us. Instead, tolerating the dissenting opinion is what we should do. If we have to do the media job one day, understanding the truth, publishing the truth, and being respectful of the truth should be the code of conduct among the media veteran. Starting with understanding the truth, making allowances for others’ difficulties is so important in modern society since vicious slander and harboring malice are normal for contemporary people who always infer that the world is bad. However, good people appear everywhere, aren’t they? Like people who save homeless dogs or the ones who help elders across the street. Media workers should insist to publish the truth which should not be distorted since they have a responsibility, to tell the truth, the first time, that is all their job. Publishing the truth is the core of media: civilians should have the right to know what the news is about and how should they deal with it. No matter how the public responds to this truth, the media is a platform used as a beacon tower: sending information, and allowing people to reference it. Thus, media plays such a vital role in public life which we cannot ignore it.
Comparing the news we could find the difference among countries: how they tackle political incidents, how they deal with their relationship between faith and life, and how the media treat their public. Rahaf is just one of the many cases that various countries that have different attitudes toward different aspects. Since none of us could control what should a whole variety of media do, we should start from ourselves to reduce the bias, fix the historiography and do better in writing the next period of history.
Work Cited List
- Bangkok Post Public Company Limited, AFP. “Saudi Woman Held at Bangkok Airport 'Fears Death' If Repatriated.” Https://Www.bangkokpost.com, 6 Jan. 2019, 21:45, www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1606362/saudi-woman-held-at-Bangkok-airport-fears-death-if-repatriated.
- Associated Press. “'Brave New Canadian': Runaway Saudi Woman Reaches New Home.” Washington Examiner, 13 Jan. 2019, 18:00, www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/brave-new-Canadian-runaway-Saudi-woman-reaches-new-home.
- Peck, Grant, and Aya Batrawy. “Saudi Woman Runaway Held in Thailand While Fleeing Family.” CTVNews, 6 Jan. 2019, 14:40 PM, www.ctvnews.ca/world/saudi-woman-runaway-held-in-Thailand-while-fleeing-family-1.4242456
- Riyadh. “Saudi Girl Rahaf Mohammed Announces Her Atheism amid Conflicting Stories about Her Fate.” Https://Www.eremnews.com/, 6 Jan. 2019, 21:49, www.eremnews.com/news/arab-world/saudi-arabia/1634058.
- Arabian Page which should see the printed translated version
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