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A DUBAI PRINCESS who has been the subject of concern from a United Nations panel after being seized trying to flee the sheikhdom in 2018 has appeared in a social media post that described her as being in Spain on a European holiday.
An Instagram image published by a woman identified in British media as former Royal Navy member Sioned Taylor shows Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum at Adolfo Suarez Madrid–Barajas Airport.
Taylor’s caption, punctuated by a smiley face emoji, read: “Great European holiday with Latifa. We’re having fun exploring!” Comments by Taylor acknowledged the location of the image, which match other images of the airport.
Asked about Sheikha Latifa, Taylor wrote in another comment “she is great” with a thumbs-up emoji.
Taylor posted images of Sheikha Latifa in May at two local Dubai malls as well.
The photos’ pedestrian captions belie the fact UN experts and human rights activists had called on Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to provide information on his daughter.
Sheikha Latifa, 35, had tried to flee the country in 2018 only to be detained by commandos in a boat off India.
Videos released in February by the BBC had Sheikha Latifa describing herself as being in a villa that “has been converted into a jail”.
The dramatic would-be sea escape and its aftermath intruded into the carefully controlled image maintained by the family of Sheikh Mohammed, who is believed to have several dozen children from multiple wives. Some of his sons and daughters figure prominently in local media and online, but others are rarely seen.
Sheikh Mohammed’s family life again became a public matter in 2020. Then, a British judge ruled the sheikh had conducted a campaign of fear and intimidation against his estranged wife and ordered the abduction of two of his daughters, one of them Sheikha Latifa.
The ruling came in a custody battle between Sheikh Mohammed and his estranged wife Princess Haya, the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan.
Sheikh Mohammed also serves as the vice president and prime minister of the hereditarily ruled UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula.
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Sioned Taylor looks more like a chaperone than a friend to me.
At least she can get to or photoshopped in Spain
@Paul: That suitcase gives the game away. Poor photoshopping job, as if princesses carry their own suitcases. I wonder who the “former Royal Navy member” is working for now and how they came to be ‘friends’.
Several dozen children from multiple wives? Christ how many wives did he have?
@David O Brien:
Multiple
@David O Brien: 14 wives I believe
@Buster Cat: all at once or did he have no more than 4 at any one time? Maybe he divorced wife number 1 just before marrying wife number 5 and so on and so forth?
@Colin Heffernan: The religion’s founder made a special rule for himself, so he could more than 4 wives. Maybe Sheikh Mohammed made a similar rule for humself.
Sheikh Mohammed, a randy devi!.
@Seán Dillon:
Whatever about that, Sheikha’s own life choices must be fully respected by her popular father.
@Seán Dillon: It was love. He’s in love with himself.
Don’t believe any of it tbh
Must dig out pics of md holidaying in Spain
@Hughie Lynch: *me
@Hughie Lynch: no need I can photoshop you there if you like any particular person you want to be seen with Elvis perhaps
If only this much attention is given to the millions of women held in captivity around the world. Most not living in absolute luxury.
@Derek Moran: weird angle given that nobody knows wjats actually going on in this instance. Also weird to give out about this kind of stories not being covered on one of those stories. Fact of the matter is the absence of a person is a very difficult story to cover for obvious reasons. New evidence equals new attention.
@Derek Moran: if news is only reported on the absolute worst case, bar none, we would have very little to read and comment on. Cop on.
Is there a photo taken from behind, so we can see what Ms Taylor is holding in her left hand?
Funny I heard her death notice on mid West radio a while back.
@Shamel Jelupi Barron: is that a real radio station?
Who??
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