UAE prisons deprive a Jordanian woman of meeting her two sons before her death
The Center for the Advocacy of Emirates Detainees reviewed the story of the Jordanian woman, Manal Muhailan, who has so far been prevented from meeting her two sons by UAE prisons in light of the severe deterioration of her health.
Two years ago, Muhailan appealed to the UAE authorities to pardon her two sons, Yasser and Abdullah Abu Bakr, detained in Emirati prisons. In addition, Muhailan addressed the princes and sheikhs of the Gulf state, whom she described as people of tolerance, asking them to pardon them and allow her to see them before her death.
In an appeal to her that came as part of a television report, Manal shed tears heartily, prompting broad social media interaction and led to the launch of a campaign to demand the release of Jordanian detainees in Emirati prisons.
The granddaughter of Manal participated in this campaign. Talia, the daughter of the Jordanian detainee, Yasser, who was no more than seven at the time, appeared in a video clip, embracing her father’s picture, telling him that she loved him, and informing him that she had graduated from kindergarten.
Despite the great success and interaction of the campaign to demand the release of Jordanian detainees on social media, it did not succeed in changing the situation, as the Emirati authorities did not pay attention to all the humanitarian appeals made by the families and solidarity activists.
The situation of Yasser and Abdullah has not changed, as they are still languishing in the Emirati Al-Wathba prison due to the circulation of a video on the WhatsApp application. Still, the situation of their mother, Manal, has changed.
Cancer defeated her after it spread throughout her body, and she fell into a complete coma a few days ago after an operation to remove more than one malignant tumour in her brain.
Given her deteriorating health condition, it does not seem that Manal will realize her wish to meet her two sons before she dies and that her two sons may not even have a chance to say goodbye to their mother even after her death.
The two sons were imprisoned for expressing their opinion on a WhatsApp group, a crime that UAE punishes by law.
For seven years, Manal has been living alone, without her two children, waiting for the Emirati authorities’ pardon, or the Jordanian government’s intervention, while the children who were babies when the parents were imprisoned live dreaming of seeing or touching them, as others do.
It seems that in the world of tyranny, there is no place for dreams, no matter how simple, and no place even for ordinary life. So meeting a father or son will become our biggest dream in this life, and everyone will pay the word tax, even if he does not say it, and everyone will live pleading or begging for the authority to feel a little mercy.
