2 Saudi women seek asylum in Georgia, claiming oppression

TBILISI, Georgia – Two sisters from Saudi Arabia are applying for asylum in the country of Georgia after saying they fled there because of fear of their own family.

The sisters, Maha and Wafa Alsubaie, attracted attention this week when they established a Twitter account in which they said they came to Georgia because of unspecified “oppression” by their family and asked for protection and to be taken to a third country.

The sisters said their father and brothers had come to Georgia to look for them and that Saudi Arabia had cancelled their passports.

The Georgian Interior Ministry said Thursday that the women were taken to a centre for asylum seekers. However, it said in a statement that the family members whom the women claim endanger them are not in Georgia.