Misha'el bint Fahd bin Mohammed al Saud

Princess Misha'al bint Fahd (1958 – 15 July 1977; Arabic: الأميرة مشاعل بنت فهد بن محمد بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود‎‎) was a member of House of Saud, who was executed by gunshot^[1] for alleged adultery^[2] in 1977, at the age of 19. She was a granddaughter of Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz, who was an older brother of King Khalid.

Background

Her family sent Misha'al bint Fahd, at her own request, to Lebanon to attend school. While there, she fell in love with a man, Khaled al-Sha'er Mulhallal, the nephew of Ali Hassan al-Shaer, the Saudi ambassador in Lebanon, and they began an affair. Upon their return to Saudi Arabia, it emerged that they had conspired to meet alone on several occasions, a charge of adultery was brought against them. She attempted to fake her own drowning^[3] and was caught trying to escape from Saudi Arabia with Khaled. Although she was disguised as a man, she was recognized by a passport examiner at Jeddah airport.^[4] She was subsequently returned to her family.^[5] Under Sharia law, a person can only be convicted of adultery by the testimony of four adult male witnesses to the act of sexual penetration, or by their own admission of guilt, stating three times in court "I have committed adultery." There were no witnesses. Her family urged her not to confess, but instead to merely promise never to see her lover again. On her return to the courtroom, she allegedly repeated her confession: "I have committed adultery. I have committed adultery. I have committed adultery." This account has been challenged by the docudrama Death of a Princess, which claims the princess and her lover were never actually tried in court.

Execution

On 15 July 1977, both were publicly executed in Jeddah by the side of the Queen's Building in the park. Despite her royal status, she was blindfolded, made to kneel, and executed on the explicit instructions of her grandfather,^[6][7] a senior member of the royal family, for the alleged dishonour she brought on her clan and defying a royal order calling for her to marry a man selected by the family.^[6][8] Khaled, after being forced to watch her execution, was beheaded with a sword by, it is believed, one of the princess's male relatives. It took five blows to sever his head, which was not the work of a professional executioner.^[4][9] Both executions were conducted near the palace in Jeddah, not in the public execution square in Jeddah.

Following the execution, segregation of women became more severe,^[10] and the religious police also began patrolling bazaars, shopping malls and any other place where men and women might happen to meet.^[9] When Prince Muhammad was later asked if the two deaths were necessary, he said, "It was enough for me that they were in the same room together".^[9]

Controversy

Independent film producer Antony Thomas came to Saudi Arabia and interviewed numerous people about the princess's story. He was met by conflicting stories, which later became the subject matter of a British documentary, Death of a Princess. The movie was scheduled to show on 9 April 1980 on the ITV television network and then a month later on the public television network PBS in the United States. Both broadcasts caused livid protests and strong diplomatic, economic and political pressure from the Saudis. Failing to get the British broadcast cancelled, King Khalid expelled the British ambassador from Saudi Arabia.^[11]

In May 1980, attention then shifted to PBS, where PBS officials endured a month of mounting pressure from corporations and politicians. A major PBS sponsor, the Mobil Oil Corporation, took out a full-page ad in The New York Times op-ed page opposing the film and declaring it jeopardized U.S.-Saudi relations. After some stalling, it was eventually broadcast by the PBS programme World in most of the US on 12 May 1980, although some PBS stations did not do so. For example, in South Carolina, the PBS affiliate cancelled broadcast of the film, a decision influenced by fact that the then US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, John C. West, had formerly been the state's Governor. The docudrama was aired in the United States as part of a weekly PBS program called "World". That program later became known as PBS "Frontline". "Death Of A Princess" aired again on "Frontline" in 2005, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original broadcast.^[12]

King Khalid, Saudi Arabia's ruler at the time, was said to have offered $11 million to the network to suppress the film.^[6]

According to Antony Thomas, there was no trial nor was there an official execution:^[2]

It wasn't a trial. She wasn't even executed in the Square of Justice. She was just executed in a car park. I've witnessed executions in Saudi Arabia, I'm afraid. They're always done in a special square. This wasn't even done there. It wasn't done with an official executioner, not that would make it any worse or any better. But this was not following the process of any law.

David Fanning, co-writer and executive producer of Death of a Princess, added:

The difference between the official version, which was the girl was killed because she was found guilty of adultery, and the truth of it, which turns out that she was, in fact, executed by the king's elder brother in an act of tribal vengeance in a parking lot in Jeddah, was, in fact, the heart of the controversy because that was the part that, of course, the royal family could not countenance. And that was the great outrage.

See also

• Executions in Saudi Arabia

References

External links

• The Qatar Diary - Death of a Princess - 10/08/05
• Princess executed for eloping Article in The Observer, 22 January 1978