She recalled early conversations with friends and family, who reiterated that being LGBTQ+ was haram, meaning forbidden. One particular family member even declared they would “kill someone” if they discovered someone was gay.<\/p>\n
![\"Saudi](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01KPJ8M29WYSYBBB3XZ3706K4T.jpg\")
Saudi national Al Hussain was informed as a teen she was due to marry a 40-year-old male cousin (PA)<\/p>\n
She said she could not hide her identity by going through with the wedding to a man, so she had no choice but to escape in the middle of the night without telling anyone.<\/p>\n
Remembering the initial conversation about the arranged marriage, Ms Hussain said: \u201cSitting me down, my mum\u2019s face was nonchalant. \u2018A cousin has informed me that he\u2019s reserving you for marriage\u2019, I was told.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing. I knew arranged marriages in my culture were common, but the reality of it absolutely terrified me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst part was that my supposed future husband-to-be was in his 40s and I was just 16 at the time. I felt disgusted, not least because I\u2019m a lesbian,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
On her childhood, Ms Hussain said: \u201cI grew up in a strict Muslim household in Saudi Arabia as part of a very big family. I couldn\u2019t ever leave the house without a male guardian and we even had CCTV to keep an eye on us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never felt like I was living my life. I was controlled by my family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always reiterated that I wouldn\u2019t be allowed to get a job or live independently.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd ever since that conversation as a teenager about being \u2018reserved\u2019 by an older family member for marriage, I was beyond frightened.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ms](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01KPJ8KB9BYJYZVTV1XZR52BAP.jpg\")
Ms Hussain\u2019s girlfriend has been teaching her to DJ (PA)<\/p>\n
At about the age of 16, Ms Hussain said she started to realise she was lesbian, which was a \u201cscary prospect\u201d because homosexual acts are criminalised in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cSchool friends would talk about boys, but I had crushes on girls and couldn\u2019t open up to anyone about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t unheard of for peers to say that queer people would go to hell, so I just stayed in the closet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout her late teens and early twenties, she said she \u201cnever had any contact\u201d with the man she was supposed to marry and there was no specific timeline for the marriage.<\/p>\n
She said he would sometimes check in with her family about her, including saying how \u201cexcited\u201d he was to marry her or that he could \u201cprovide anything\u201d she wanted, but they were not allowed to talk to each other.<\/p>\n
Without a proper timeline for the wedding, Al said she felt a \u201clooming threat\u201d hanging over her.<\/p>\n
She said she \u201cbegged\u201d her parents to allow her to go to university because she secretly thought it might help prolong the time before she was married, and they \u201creluctantly\u201d agreed.<\/p>\n
Ms Hussain said: \u201cWhile I was at university, my older sisters had their arranged marriages and I knew I was next. This is because it had to happen in order from oldest to youngest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I got desperate. I went to my future husband\u2019s sister and said how unattractive I thought he was, which was not allowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWord got back to my family and he said that if I didn\u2019t want him, then he wasn\u2019t going to wait for me any more.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called everything off and I was so relieved. I felt free, but I knew that it was a matter of time before another one would be set up.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she came up with a plan to flee the country by applying for a passport when she was 27, and getting a secret customer service job that she could do from her bedroom, to save money for a flight.<\/p>\n
In 2022, she said she came across the news that the UK had opened a scheme to travel with an electronic visa, so she applied for it and was approved within weeks.<\/p>\n
Ms Hussain said: \u201cVery early one morning, I packed up a suitcase, locked my bedroom door, and booked an Uber to get me to the airport. I tip-toed out of the front door while everyone was sleeping and ended up catching one of the earliest flights out of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t say a thing to anyone in my family about my plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I got on the plane, I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn\u2019t even feel my legs from the adrenaline and nerves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe minute I arrived in London, I burst into tears. And the tears didn\u2019t stop when I went to an airport officer and said I needed to apply for asylum.<\/p>\n
![\"Ms](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01KPJ8M06PXFGFJPP3GKXK0SCD.jpg\")
Ms Hussain said she was \u2018relieved\u2019 to be able to live the life she wanted in the UK (PA)<\/p>\n
\u201cAt one point during my initial interview that day, the officer said: \u2018I promise you\u2019re safe\u2019. But I just could not stop crying,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Ms Hussain said she felt \u201crelieved\u201d at the idea of finally being able to live her life.<\/p>\n
Over the next few months, she said she stayed in several different asylum seeker hotels across London, but she felt \u201cvery paranoid\u201d after what she experienced in Saudi Arabia so she \u201cbarely left\u201d her accommodation.<\/p>\n
She said a lifeline for her was downloading the dating app Tinder, which is where she met her girlfriend, Eris, in August 2022.<\/p>\n
They were initially friends, but then decided to date and Eris has been teaching Ms Hussain to DJ, and she now has regular gigs in LGBTQ+ venues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier,\u201d she said. \u201cI can truly be myself and I have also found a community that I feel safe in.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the end of 2023, she said she was \u201cthrilled\u201d to get a call from her immigration lawyer to say that her asylum application was approved.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cFinally, I could start living my life and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want queer Saudi women to know that there is hope out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best part is, I can wear what I want, go where I want, and be whoever I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Hussain is supported by the LGBTQ+ asylum seeker charity Rainbow Migration, which you can find out more about on their website: https:\/\/www.rainbowmigration.org.uk\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1351,985,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-17386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-asylum","9":"tag-people","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116433908062237073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}