Noof Al-Maadeed, Qatari woman who suffered 'family abuse', goes incommunicado raising fears

The case of a Qatari woman gone incommunicado after returning to Doha, following attempted asylum in the United Kingdom, has raised concerns among rights groups and activists. They fear she may have come to harm at the hands of her family, accused of allegedly abusing her for years prior.

Noof Al-Maadeed, 23, has not been heard from since last tweeting on 13 October that she was "not safe". She had previously warned followers on social media, where she posted on a near-daily basis, that her social media silence should be taken as a red flag.

The case has made local and international headlines this week after the Beirut-based Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) published a report claiming without immediate evidence that she had been murdered, leading to a stream of Twitter accounts, including apparent bots, circulating the hashtags #WhereIsNoof and #FreeNoofNow. 

A Qatari official speaking to British newspaper The Guardian has however dismissed the claim, saying she was in good health but unable to speak publicly due to a request for "privacy". A woman who identifies herself on Twitter as Noof's relative has also denied the rumours about her death, but has stopped short of explaining her exact whereabouts and circumstances.

Al-Maadeed posted almost daily updates to her Twitter account documenting her journey back to Qatar, where she arrived on 30 September after seeking asylum in the UK in 2019. She had said she fled abuse from her family, flying to Britain via Ukraine. 

In 2019, she told Human Rights Watch she was subjected to years of domestic abuse and restrictions on her movement and said she felt her life had been at risk.

She decided to travel back to Qatar earlier this year after apparent reassurances for her safety. However, Noof described on her social media accounts a dramatic sequence of events following the end of her mandatory Covid-19 quarantine period at a Doha hotel, when members of her family arrived at her accommodation shortly before her online activities came to a stop.

Due to weak laws on domestic abuse in the region, authorities in the Middle East often try to mediate in such cases instead of involving the police, but rights groups and activists are now calling on the Qatari authorities to intervene directly in Al-Maadeed's case to ensure her safety and for these laws to be reformed.