What Happens in Dubai

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When they learned that Elombo had been arrested, Latifa seemed to freeze. “It became so tense, so stressful,” Jauhiainen told me. “We were not talking to each other, because it was just, like, nobody’s responding, we have no plan, we’re running out of petrol.” Haigh logged in to his computer and scrolled through the messages he had saved from Latifa’s secret phone, in files with code names such as “Cinnamon Bun Recipes” and “Custard Donut.” He and Jauhiainen had dedicated more than three years to Latifa’s cause, and he felt furious that Dubai was erasing their work. “They want to reinvent history,” he said. “And they’re doing it.” By now, Latifa was steering the campaign from behind the scenes. She reviewed filings to the U.N., designed logos, and dreamed up increasingly bold strategies. She was, Haigh told me, “bloody bossy.” In June, Latifa seized upon a new hope. When Sheikh Mohammed flew to the U.K. to attend Ascot, he was photographed with the Queen and Prince William—but, for the first time in many years, Princess Haya was not on his arm. Reports began to spread that the ruler’s youngest wife had left him. If Haya was no longer under Sheikh Mohammed’s control, Latifa reasoned, she could confirm that her stepdaughter was being held against her will: “She has seen it with her own eyes.”

So, yeah, this book wasn't for me & after reading two of the author's books I don't think her writing style/sense of humor are for me either. No more Sophie Gravia books for me. The writing style, as mentioned - is THAT good, you genuinely feel like you’re part of the group and are reading one of their diaries perhaps, or

But Latifa had lost patience. “You have ten seconds,” she shouted at Shamsa. “Tell me what you want! Because I went to prison so many times for you. I almost died for you.” Warning: this is NOT a romcom. It's dating in the 21st century and Sophie Gravia is about to give you all the toe-curling, cringe-worthy, laugh-out-loud details. What can I do if my situation is not covered under your relaxed polices due to COVID-19 but I want to cancel my trip anyway? Even her friends are shit, especially Ashley (wtf girl, if you have a problem with your bf go talk to thim!). And at the end, with Tom.... WTF WERE YOU EXPECTING ZARA!??!?!?!

Haigh’s mouth fell open. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” he said. “This is a nuclear bomb.” He and Stirling released clips of the video to the media and uploaded it to YouTube. Within Dubai’s ruling family, women inhabit a wrenching dual role: they are exalted as emblems of female advancement while privately obligated to “carry the honor” for the dynasty. Sheikh Mohammed has married at least six women, who have borne him dozens of children. According to Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, female disobedience in the Emir’s circle provokes a “politically dangerous” question among subjects: How can you really tell us what to do when you can’t control your own family? The logic of absolute power requires that such rebellions be crushed swiftly and publicly. “That’s performative patriarchy,” Ibish said. “You want to watch me control my family? Here you go.” On August 19th, Shamsa and Osborne were captured on CCTV exiting the hotel and climbing into a car. She was drunk, and Osborne took the wheel. He drove Shamsa to a nearby bridge, where he pulled over abruptly and got out. It was an ambush. Four Emirati men leaped into the vehicle, and it sped away. Shamsa was driven to her father’s Newmarket estate, where she spent a desolate night in the manor house, Dalham Hall. At first light, she was hustled out of the country, bound for Dubai. Their group chat filled with memes, travel plans, and discussions about movies, books, and music. Latifa daydreamed about visiting Hawaii, where she had heard there were four hundred different kinds of mangoes and “fruits that taste like chocolate pudding and vanilla ice cream.” Haigh supplied her with a Netflix log-in. She loved horror films, and once spooked herself badly enough that she had to sleep with the lights on for several nights. When he sent pictures of sunsets over the sea at Lamorna, she was so transfixed that she imagined buying the whole cove. One spring, Latifa hoped she might be allowed to travel to England during racing season, and sent Jaubert Google Earth imagery of the Longcross Estate, to look for an extraction point. The grounds appeared impenetrable, so they planned a fake kidnapping, in which Jaubert would snatch Latifa from her bodyguards while she was out shopping. But when the racing party left for England she was told to stay behind.During the summer, when Dubai grew oppressively hot, Sheikh Mohammed would bring a few favored wives and children to England. In 2000, despite Shamsa’s rebelliousness, she was allowed to join the party at Longcross. She loved England—it was her favorite place, she had told Latifa. She also had a soft spot for one of her father’s British guards: a former policeman and Army officer in his early forties named Grant Osborne. Shamsa tried to get close to Osborne, according to a friend she spoke to frequently that summer, but he rebuffed her.