My Cousin's wife is trapped in Saudi Arabia, what can be done to get her home?

Bunny and "H" have it correct.. a lot of you dont realize the Saudi marriage laws.. you are just saying do this and do that.. She is NOT an american citizen and theres nothing the US embassy or government can or will do.. SaudiArabia has its laws.. no woman under age of 30 can get permission except in rare cases to marry a Non Saudi.. All Saudi women have to apply for marriage permission to be legal and recognized as a legal marriage in SaudiArabia.. its easier for over 30's to marry an outsider, but still need permission.. She is not recognized as legally married in Saudiarabia.. So therefore, her US husband can do absolutely nothing.. She should have known this and not snuck behind her countries back and just married.. thats actually illegal in SAudi... The best you could hope is if he moved to Bahrain and tried to live and work there while trying to gain conficence of her family, father, etc and then legally going through the governments permission to do this.. correctly..

If your cousin as you said, "the husband" and a real man , then I'm sure he knows very well how to protect & retrieve his woman even if it cost him his life. but If he is not, in that case please don't blame the parents if they prevent her returning back to someone like a chicken.!!! trust me anyone he cant retrieve his wife, he would not be able to protect anything "else"....!! i'm sorry about my strict words and i hope your cousin will be a real man. by the way, the previous answers were good enough for your cousin. thanks --------------------------------------… Noufa, Definitely you're right, if the relationship just like what you have. Or the Girl "the wife" was YOU.

Your cousin's wife isn't considered being married in Saudi because she didn't get the permission form the Saudi Government and therefore couldn't get the marriage registered in KSA. Please be aware that no Embassy will be able to help because she is a Saudi Citizen and therefore no Embassy will interfere. A friend of mine who got married to a Brit without approval was jailed for around 7 months until we involved Amnesty International. Good luck.

She can't leave without her fathers permission. Some girls have left the country illegally via fake passports or yellow paper (guardian permission to travel slip)

Someone should go pick her up, and then bring her to the next country whatever it is, Illegally introduce her to that country then go to the US embassy and tell them that she lost her papers they might help

Something similar happened to my sister. Her husband was a Saudi and she was stuck there, we tried to go through the american embassy and everything but according to Saudi law women are controlled by their fathers if unmarried and their husbands if married. If your cousin is her legal husband then her family can not do anything about it. He can go there with the marriage license and take her to get her travel documents and her family can not do anything about it. Good luck with everything it took a year and a half to finally get my sister home!

parents** I second Ra's answer.

She knows how to contact the embassy and also she knows how to get out of that "marriage" :)

If she is an American citizen, then contact the embassy and they will tell you what to do. TRUST ME. Don't loose hope, just contact the American government, and sit back and relax as you watch the various authorities of the 2 countries sorting it out. From what I hear, you're friends case sounds very sensational and it WILL cause a lot of buzz. Contact all the media and tell them about you're sad plight, show them the marriage certificate, record of the plane ticket, heck even personal pictures! Once they get hold of the story, you or you're friend wont have to do anything else. Remember, this thing is bigger than you, mere mortals like us can't tackle this! You need the media on you're side - contact or even go to as many TV stations as you can! When you talk to government officials, cry you're eyes out - whether on phone or in person doesn't matter! They need to know how desperate you are, otherwise they wont do squat! Unfortunately, government officials are as lazy as sloths! Good luck, I hope I could help.